Mental habits and excessive muscle tension
Alexander identified two mental habits which he believed to be particularly unhelpful.
The Illusion of ‘Concentration’
The first one was concentration. When we encounter a difficult task, our instinct is to lock down and "concentrate." However, Alexander found that this sort of concentration is often a recipe for physical disaster. In his book Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual, he observed a striking pattern in his students:
"In my experience, as soon as the pupil is asked not to do anything, he will immediately show all those signs of strain and fixity of attention that he shows when he is asked to do something, and which we have learned to associate with any attempt at concentration."
Alexander observed that people often bring immense, stressful effort even to the act of resting. When pointed out, a student would invariably reply, "I am trying to do nothing!" Alexander noted, "He actually believes that he has something to do to do nothing. To such a point can we be led by our belief in concentration!"
When our awareness narrows into this hyper-focused, straining tunnel vision mode, our nervous system interprets that intensity as a subtle threat. In response, it automatically spikes our muscular tone—bracing our neck, locking our back and limbs, and restricting our breath.
Just think about the last time you were deeply engrossed in a difficult task—perhaps drafting an urgent email, navigating heavy traffic, or even just engrossed in anything like looking at something on your phone. If you were to freeze-frame that exact moment, where was your attention? Chances are that it was entirely absorbed into the object in front of you. Your world had shrunk to the size of a screen or a steering wheel. You had lost the world around you.
Now, ask yourself the follow-up question: what were your shoulders doing? Where was your jaw? And is this over-efforting and intense concentration actually any help at all in doing what we’re doing well? Could the opposite even be true, could it be hindering us and getting in the way of our activity?
Most of us treat our minds and our muscles as two completely separate systems. We assume that if our shoulders are tight, we need a massage, a stretch, or a better chair. But the Alexander Technique reveals a much more profound truth: the quality and intensity of our attention contributes significantly to the tension in our body.
‘Mind-Wandering’
At the other end of the spectrum to concentration/intense mental focus is what Alexander referred to as mind wandering. He warned that when our minds completely wander away from the present moment, we lose conscious control and operate on autopilot. Physical habits (like slouching or collapsing or a forced, braced upright) or habitual (often negative) mental habits/thought patterns and loops like worry can take over.
Mental states such as concentration and mind wandering will come and go. But when we actually become aware of them, and notice them - and their physical effects - we can actively choose to come out of them rather than continuing on unconscious autopilot mode; and allow our musculature and skeleton to return to something more in line with their natural design. Something more undisturbed and healthy.
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