Have you ever taken the time to notice your everyday habitual tendencies? Do you tend to always park your car in the same spot if you go to a place regularly? Have you ever noticed how your dominant hand will clean your teeth for you with very little conscious input from your self? Are you aware of your body’s safety behaviours when you feel nervous and under threat? These are all examples of the power of habit. You can already deduce that if you peel aware the layers of ease, comfort, laziness etc. that the bottom line is that we form habits as a way of staying safe.
These habitual tendencies fit very snugly into our need to establish routine to move through our days in a predictable, safe way. When I go on holiday for a week or so, my first priority is to establish a new routine for this very reason. We are not alone in this concept, my dog loves to have a routine and is uneasy when that routines is disrupted. In my experience, many of these safety habits are formed in our early life, especially during childhood, when we may have felt vulnerable and insecure. This is such a potent force that in adulthood, even though the dangerous situations were many years ago, we still maintain the habits because the human innate ability to stay safe and avoid perceived danger is number one in the body’s priorities.
These safety habits often cause patterns of surplus tension in the body that are simply not required any more. They mostly involve a contraction of the body in some way, usually a habitual shortening of the spine. Examples of this might be the defensive military posture with shoulders back, chest out and stomach in or a tendency to hunch over and hide behind our phone. Is one of your shoulders permanently higher than the other? Have you got exaggerated curves in your spine? These are just two other examples of habitual body patterns. The catch is that, because we are so used to these tendencies, we feel that they are part of us and it’s just who we are. Chronic pain may ensue as the tension patterns become pronounced. Short term relief can be gained by seeing various health care professionals but the safety habits will always bring you back to their door. Over time, this will not only damage your wallet but also your self esteem as you feel you need to rely on others to keep ‘fixing you’.
Cue: The Alexander Technique! I can help you identify these redundant habits, setting you on a course of freedom and ease of being. In my three year full-time teacher training course, I was taught how to do this and have been doing it for the last twenty years with consistently excellent results (please see my testimonials). By taking lessons, I can teach you how to maintain yourself in a new liberating way that will keep those harmful habits at bay. It’s best to get in contact soon or those habits of a lifetime will keep you securely imprisoned and you’ll never find that part of yourself that sets you free.
