Using Gravity to Help Your Posture.

Following on from my previous vlog on gravity I wanted to expand a little further on it as gravity helps to explain one of Alexander's main observations. And I think it's important to point out that his work was born out of observation of human behaviour (actually his own behaviour initially) rather than from theory.

What Alexander noticed was that when his head was allowed to be "forward and up" in relation to the spine, he coordinated better and had less interference from habitual tension. 

It's almost a catechism within the Alexander Technique to use the classic phrase "let the neck be free, to let the head go forward and up".

I think it's acceptable to question how one is supposed to let your neck be free in the first place when there's habitual tension that's preventing it. The answer to that is for another discussion but includes inhibition and the ingredient of time.

However, by understanding how we operate within gravity you'll see how "head forward and up" is done for you, increasing your chance of letting it happen by wishing to release into it. 

Of course, it's OK to move your head in any orientation the joints allow, what we're talking about here is where is "home". It's debatable how long we spend at "home", the question is do we know where it is, and are we capable of freely returning to it. You could also consider it an aspect of Positions of Mechanical Advantage.

On a more general note, we want to avoid being like a fish out of water in our mental relation to the Earth's surface. When thinking of a fish swimming you automatically think of the fish and the water together almost as a singular entity.  But when it comes to ourselves we have a tendency to separate our movement from the support that gravity provides, and even make locomotion possible. Become part of your environment, be a fish in water.