Body Learning Part 2

Alexander described primary control as a dynamic relationship in which our head, neck, and torso are  primary influences for the coordination of our whole body mechanism and all our movements. It functions all of the time for better or worse in every position. After reading about the unreliable sensory appreciation, I realized that almost everyone can relate to this. Its basically when we feel as though our physical condition is kinaesthetically right or appropriate, but in reality it's wrong. Alexander described that in one of his lessons, his teacher guided him through the process of sitting to standing and he realized that his idea of standing involved him shortening his neck muscles and pushing his legs and feet on the floor. The teacher then helped him fix these problems and Alexander called the process, "going from the known to unknown." The key term he explained after this which was inhibition, was quite similar. Inhibition is the ability to delay our response until we are prepared to change it. This discovery was made when Alexander realized that he was the one that caused his voice problems. Direction was a bit tricky for me to understand, but I think it's when you actually think about your movements before physically doing them therefore you are aware of what you're doing. You begin to get a better idea of the directions in which your body are going and where you wish to go. Last but not least, I think ends and means is pretty much a mixture of all the other key terms. It describes how we use ourselves when performing actions; instead of focusing on the goal we wish to attain, we learn to have an increased consciousness of the physical means employed to achieve our ends intelligently. 

I must say, after reading this article I was a bit confused about some things so I went back and highlighted important stuff and read over it until I had a clear understanding. I found the whole concept interesting because Alexander was just a normal person who discovered all of this on his own and a doctor couldn't even figure it out. When I first read about the Alexander technique, I thought it was a bit silly because it seemed so simple to do and understand, but in reality its not when you actually get in front of a mirror and observe your physicality and try to make changes. What really stood out to me was the idea of unreliable sensory appreciation. I am always being told that I have a weird walk and I never understood how. People say my feet go out to opposite directions after every step I take and that my knees look like they touch. Of course I think the way I walk is normal because that's what I'm used to but if I actually took the time to observe the way I walked and figured out why I do so, I can maybe be like Alexander himself and fix my problem by using his technique. All in all, I really enjoyed learning about his life and all of his discoveries.