Our basic coordination is automatic and unconscious. A three year old thinks about what she has to say, not how she’s standing.

Poised and goal-oriented, a ten year old relies on her movement habits to slug the ball out of the park

Habit and Change

Many students come to their first Alexander lesson wanting to know the right way to move. But the first step in improving how you move is not being told what you should do, but finding out what you actually do. This means coming to terms with habit.

Most movement is habitual, meaning it is automatic and unconscious. Past the age of two, we usually don’t think about how we are moving. We don’t attend to the particulars of our gait or how we’re balancing in the chair. We simply walk or sit.

Habits free us to think about other things. My sister at three isn’t thinking about how she is standing, she’s thinking about everything she has to say—beginning perhaps with why she has to wear so much plaid.

This habitual coordination becomes the basis for later skill.

My sister at ten shows a poise at the softball plate that makes an Alexander teacher rejoice: free neck, relaxed shoulders, a lengthening back, bending at the hips and knees—not the waist—and a smile to boot. Moreover, her coordination is at the service of her larger goals. When she goes to slug the ball out of the park, she doesn’t have to micromanage her coordination. It happens for her.

This is the ideal for skilled movement—automatic and goal-oriented. And it is an ideal experienced by almost everyone: when driving, typing, riding a bike, or playing an instrument.

Unfortunately, the same process that gives us fluid, effective movement can leave us oblivious to the causes of our discomfort or pain. My experience as a violinist is a case in point.

Next: When habits go bad.