Habits- Alexander Technique

This past weekend, I attended a free introductory lecture on the Alexander Technique (A.T.) given by a delightful young couple who have been certified to teach the technique. I won't go into detail as to what drew me to the lecture-- other than to say that a) I've had life-long issues with poor posture and body mechanics, and at my current stage in life (late 50's) they're getting harder and harder to ignore, and b) unlike other "alternative therapies" such as yoga, reiki, etc, the A.T. tends to take a more cerebral approach, which I personally find more appealing. Towards the end of the lecture (which also included a hands-on demonstration of A.T. training), I had a little mini-insight.

That insight had to do with habits: Habits are the things we do unconsciously. They can be good or bad. You don't change habits so much as you un-learn old (or bad) habits and replace them with new (or good) ones. To un-learn ("break") habits, you first have to become aware of them. This requires consciously stepping outside of yourself and being able to see yourself from that perspective. You then have understand why you do what it is you're doing, and then based on that information consciously stop doing it. But that's not enough: You have to introduce the new habit. And there, you reverse the process: You begin with a series of conscious actions and you repeat them until they become unconscious.

(Yeah, I know-- this is nothing more than the Lewin model of change, applied on the personal level. But I finally "got" it!)

I mentioned this to the teacher, and he smiled and then pulled a framed quote from the wall, and then began to read the quote. It was from a 1918 book by F. M. Alexander, the originator of the Alexander Technique (Man's Supreme Inheritance: Conscious Guidance and Control in relation to Human Evolution in Civilization; see Google Books for more-- and note, btw, that the introduction was written by John Dewey):

Thus it will be seen that the difference between the new habit and the old is that the old was our master and ruled us, whilst the new is our servant ready to carry out our lightest wish without question, though always working quietly and unobtrusively on our behalf in accordance with the most recent orders given.

Nicely put.