How habits shape our daily livesChange involves carrying out an activity against the habit of life. – F. M. Alexander You work at a computer and by noon your back is hurting and your arm doesn't feel right. You¹re an actor; you perform on stage and your voice disappears and you have trouble remembering your lines. You've been playing tennis every week for ten years, and yet your game never seems to improve. These are just a few examples of the ways psycho-physical habits shape our daily lives. At exactly the times when the most freedom is needed, we create undue tension that interferes with healthy mental and physical functioning. Is this tension necessary? Are there ways to gain control over these habits? We're so accustomed to the tensions we carry with us throughout our day that we rarely notice them unless we¹re in pain. Yet these tensions have a powerful impact on every goal we set out to accomplish. Our internal feedback system or kinesthetic sense, which would normally tell us when something is wrong, is no longer accurate; this makes it almost impossible for us to make changes in ourselves without causing new problems. |
