Body Learning by Michael Gelb is an interesting introduction to the Alexander Technique. My succinct version of the Alexander Technique is that everything is easier with poise and that our poor habits replace our natural poise with persistent tensions. Gelb clarified several key ideas in this book.

One key is that our kinesthetics about what feels right are really what feels habitual and so when making changes we typically need external validation through another person or even a mirror. This is an interesting validation for life coaches and accountability in general.

Another key is that in order to make changes using the Alexander Technique you can not just barrel straight towards your desired outcome. If you do this “endgaining” you will just trigger all your old habits and end up in the same position as (or worse than) when you began. To counter this Gelb shares Alexander’s ideas of inhibition and direction. Both of these ideas are common in NLP (Bandler is fond of interrupting a pattern and setting a new direction as an intervention). I never thought to apply them to physical processes in addition to mental. In either situation the value is clear: you need to remove the old behavior to “make room” for a new behavior.

I’m curious what habits you could interrupt today.
What will you put in their place?