Three years of Alexander Technique teacher training lay now behind me, and working as a professional teacher can start. I find myself in the middle, here and now, taking the next step in creating a living by handing over valuable information to those willing to get to know themselves a little bit better.
In a period of history where our environment changes at increasing speed, the adaptability of our nervous system is tested like never before. While I took my first, cautious steps on this planet, mankind's collective knowledge and imagination helped man to walk on the moon. Like a baby leaving the womb, some humans left, if only for a short time, the nurturing environment they grew up in.
Since then, everyday living of many of us has been pervaded by the digital evolution. TVs gained colour, VCRs allowed recording, phones lost their dials, and then their wires, compact discs threatened vinyl, computers replaced typewriters and calculators, networks emerged that connected these technological developments to exchange information instantly around the globe. In 2010, an iPhone combines TV, VCR, phone, music player, computer and internet into a tiny device that fits into most pockets.
Technology not only became more powerful and ubiquitous, but also much easier to use. Ten years ago, when I published myself the first time on the internet, I used a fairly complex setup. I had a small SUN workstation, installed a variety a free software components, created mechanisms to automatically update my changing address, designed a layout and graphics for the website, secured everything as good as possible against hacking. It took me several days before I could write the first article, and by then I had run out of steam for a while.
I still spend maybe a couple of hours to set up this site, yet this time I could focus on content and design instead of some technical nitty-gritty. Progress, like predicted in Moore's law, seems to contradict common sense, yet it reflects my in-depth experience with technology in my relatively short lifetime. Just twenty years ago, showing someone a photo meant handing them a hardcopy in person. Nowadays you can made any photo instantly available by uploading to the web, or sending them to the phones of your friends.
Learning how to operate digital devices has become an important cultural skill required for the 21st century. Congratulation, by reading this article online you demonstrate skills which were unknown just a generation ago, and are as yet only mastered by a minority of people globally. Our attraction to moving pictures on ever smaller screens requires a conscious approach to prevent negative effects on our overall sanity. A broad visual field and widespread attention helped mankind's survival throughout most of its evolution.
As former IT professional, I learned about the negative side effects of too much concentration towards screens from my own experience. I forgot to attend to my proprioception when I worked, which led to regularly tense neck and shoulders, and sometimes minor back pains. In my job, I used my specialist knowledge to make the computer systems easier to use, or extend the functionality. Yet keeping myself fit and healthy at the same time didn't work. No matter how many how-to manuals I wrote, I had yet to find the operation manual for human beings.
FM Alexander's books probably don't really deserve to be called operation manual for human beings, his writing style fits better into his times than the 21st century. His ideas, however, are simple and compelling enough to initiate a process of self-discovery which is suited for the challenges of modern times. By changing the way we attend to our movements, or more specifically by maintaining an optimal relation between the head and the rest of our body, movement becomes most efficient. Synergistic movement prevents deterioration of our health and might even alleviate symptoms of disease.
You need to know only few things to operate a web browser. You need to be able to type in web addresses, need to know how a link looks like, and how to activate it. On top of that, knowing about google, wikipedia, facebook or twitter gives you new choices what to do with the internet. In a similar way, Alexander Technique only teaches you how to move more naturally, but you still choose what to do with this skill. Our physical structure evolved in very different environment from the modern world, it takes a bit of consciousness to move in this new world without accidentally harming yourself.
Evolution provides humanity with an extremely flexible, permanently changing nervous system. Each heart beat, each breath leaves its traces in the network of our brain, consisting of more neurons than stars in our universe, each of them connected to up ten thousands of other neurons. We literally incorporate our history with the shape of our bodies and patterns of movement.
The Alexander Technique uses the neuroplastic nature of our brains. By changing the way how I keep myself upright while I'm working with a computer I can work for longer, without ending up with tense neck and shoulders. It me took a while to become aware of myself in activity again, and like any other skill, there's no limit as how good one can become. Changing our habits means changing the way we move, and vice versa.
If you wanted to explain someone how to use a web browser, the easiest way would be by showing. The same applies to synergistic movement. Once we have lost the ability to move naturally to a degree, we can't imagine how easy movement can be, yet we still can be shown. If the parts of our body interact in the way they were optimised for, we create synergistic movement, limited only by our imagination. As an Alexander Technique teacher, I can show you with my hands what I understand as synergistic movement, and find a way for you to bring this way of moving into your life.
Don't worry, learning the skills involved in the Alexander Technique doesn't require any advanced knowledge of neuro-science or IT. My lessons involve show and tell. Unfortunately, many of the things considered common knowledge about our functionality as human being prove factually wrong. I want to use this blog to write about the human nature, linking my experiences with ideas about consciousness and scientific research. Doing more with less sounds incredible at first, yet it can become part of your daily experience.
