Moshe

”We cannot become conscious of a feeling before it is expressed by a motor mobilization and, therefore, there is no feeling so long as there is no body attitude.”.

BASICS
The mind and body are united, “A healthy mind in a healthy body” - Inseparable whole to function.
“An improvement in speed and clarity of thought may be obtained by reducing the extent of body movement and smoothing the performance of the muscular controls”
-------- > MARTIAL ARTS <-----------

“Note how persistently we retain the same thoughts and the same modes of action throughout our lives - for example how we use the same patterns of the speaking apparatus producing the same voices so that we can be identified by it for decades on end”
“We have no sensation of the inner workings of the central nervous system. We can feel their manifestations only as far as the eye, the vocal apparatus, the facial mobilization, and the rest of the body provoke our awareness. This is the state of consciousness.”
“There is little doubt in my mind that the motor function, and perhaps the muscles themselves, are part and parcel of our higher functions. This is true not only of those higher functions like singing, painting, and loving, which are impossible without muscular activity, but also of thinking, recalling, remembering, and feeling.”
“We cannot become conscious of a feeling before it is expressed by a motor mobilization and, there is no feeling so long as there is no body attitude”

RE-EDUCATION
“In human beings a normal action can be either unconscious and automatic or fully conscious and aware.”
“Just as anatomy has helped us get an intimate knowledge of the working of the body, and neuroanatomy is an understanding of some activities of the psyche, so will understanding of the somatic aspects of consciousness enable us to know ourselves more intimately. Tension is self-destructive. In the future, we should be able to direct the forces that generate tension not just to release it, but also in order to improve human functioning.
“Both the body and the psyche to be changed simultaneously”, otherwise, the change “will last only as long as the person has not lost awareness of it, and has not resumed spontaneous habitual patterns”
Changing the spontaneous
Improving involuntary movement
Controlling the subconscious
Only possible through communication between the body and mind

HOW?
“The advantage of approaching the unity of mental and muscular life through the body lies in the fact that the muscle expression is simpler because it is concrete and easier to locate. It is also incomparably easier to make a person aware of what is happening in the body, and therefore the body approach yields faster and more direct results.”
“For purposes of diagnosis, assuming the oneness of mind and body and working on the body provide a new outlook which reveals relations between apparently unrelated facts.”
“Old age begins with the self-imposed restriction on forming new body patterns. First, one selects attitudes and postures to fit an assumed dignity and so rejects certain actions, such as sitting on the floor or jumping, which then soon become impossible to perform. The resumption and reintegration of even these simple actions has marked rejuvenating effect not only on the mechanics of the body, but also on the personality as a whole.”

STANDARDS OF NORMALITY
“The factor limiting movements of the body in general should be the skeleton structure and not the muscular tightness”
Skeleton vs. muscle
“To make these norms of normality have universal application, we must view human beings in their entirety. A person is made of three entities: the nervous system, which is the core; the body-skeleton, viscera, and muscles-which is the envelope of the core; and the environment, which is space, gravitation, and society. These three aspects, each with its material support and its activity, together give a working picture of a human being.”
“Men going deliberately to face death in order to preserve an established social order. IN this case, the ties of a nervous system to a social order may be stronger than those with the body itself, so that some individuals sacrifice the first two parts of themselves to preserve the third.”
“Gravity is a major aspect of reality and plays an important part in constituting our normality. But we are so accustomed to the gravitational field that we have to learn about its existence. The same is true of consciousness, which is continuous so long as the sequence of bodily orentational cues is uninterrupted. How organic this body orientation is to consciousness can only be realized when there is a break in the connection between them.

APPLIED TECHNIQUES
Hands on:
“The procedure is a successive series of adjustments, each one allowing a further improvement in the segment just dealt with.”
“Before using this technique, one must experience it oneself first, in order to acquire the necessary delicacy of touch and clear sense of which muscle group or segment needs attention first and which needs it at all”
“I insist on thirty to forty sessions on a daily basis and then two or three sessions a week until the major complaint is gone. Normally, in about fifty percent of cases, pains and inability to use a body part disappear before the daily sessions are over.

Alexander --- Inhibition
Awareness: The first stage in learning the Technique focuses on developing a more refined kinesthetic and proprioceptive awareness that includes both the self and the environment. Even in your first lesson, you can begin to expand your awareness of physical sensation. Practicing proprioceptive awareness as you perform routine activities, you become more fully present to what is happening in the whole self (mental, physical, emotional, even spiritual) as well as to your surroundings. Acting from an awareness of self and the world around you is the opposite of running on autopilot.
Inhibition of automatic reaction: You can’t change a habit you don’t notice. And a habit is much like an automatic reaction—something you do immediately, without thinking. Once you become aware of the habit, whether it is muscular or mental, you have the possibility of changing it. You can practice inhibiting the automatic reaction. As you practice the Alexander Technique, you learn to bring awareness to that tiny window of time between a stimulus and your response. It’s as if you can magnify that split-second moment—so that your typical reaction can be interrupted, or inhibited, and a new response can be initiated. For instance, if you usually react with a tight jaw and raised shoulders when your boss asks you for another report, you might, instead, allow a moment of stillness and openness before responding, and then choose not to contract or tighten. You can give yourself a moment to make a conscious choice, and respond with a sense of spaciousness, whether or not you choose do the report that day.
Direction of conscious intention: When you have paused and allowed yourself to not respond in the usual way, then you can re-direct yourself toward another choice. Alexander students practice directing conscious intention by sending a clear message from the brain to the mechanisms responsible for action. So often when we are faced with a challenge, our typical reaction is one of contraction. This is part of the fight-or-flight response and is useful in moments of emergency, but not so useful when it’s time to address a group of colleagues about a proposed project (or respond to your boss’s requests). Instead of the usual uncomfortable, sweaty experience, you can inhibit your automatic reaction and send your body messages of ease and expansion.