I often find this knife resting quite happily on the kitchen counter. If it had feelings it might have a nagging pain somewhere along it’s length. Luckily it doesn’t.
Unfortunately for us the story is different. We can feel pain when our structure is not as it should or could be – we then don’t function at our best, our movements don’t flow as well, nor are we truly at ease when simply sitting or standing . When we are out of alignment there can be a tendency to either hold ourselves up or collapse inwards…maybe feeling unsettled and lacking real vitality. Over time our actions – how we function can leave its imprint. ‘Use affects functioning’ (FM Alexander) We can overcompensate, habit movements can become unthinking and effortful which in turn affects our balance and coordination as we create (excess) held tensions that become fixed in our system, distorting our structure – just like this old knife.
With AT we have choice. We can STOP, THINK, ACT.