As we continue to unpack Patrick MacDonald’s five fundamentals of the Alexander Technique (AT) I wanted to speak to how we are now using language differently here in 2022. Alexander was of the Edwardian Age, his students were using language that evolved from there and some of this language unhelpfully binary, in my opinion. So when you read the phrase “faulty sensory awareness” if this conjures up a “right way” and a “wrong way” with nothing in between - you are cordially invited to step further back and add context to all of these experiments.
To “explain” Faulty Sensory Awareness though - I invite you to conduct the following self-experiment. You will need a mirror and you will need to be upright, either sitting or standing.
First, gaze upon the image in the mirror - it is a 2 dimensional representation of your own image unless you are a vampire.
Without needing to fix, curate or “be good at this” simply notice what you see. Does your noticing affect your “posture?” are we conditioned to adapt the sense of our multi-dimensional selves to somehow curate the 2 dimensional imagine in the mirror? (again - context (lighting, mirror being convex or concave) affects this 2 dimensional image - so asking you to simply notice without judging)
And then, if comfortable for you, closing your eyes and rocking forward and back slightly, only so far as gently moving the body’s point of balance a bit forward of the hips or the feet and then just a bit behind - not super challenging, as if you were the weight of a wind chime affected by the breeze.
And then invite that weight to find its own center.
Maintaining this moment with the eyes closed, and taking stock of your own sensation of your height - either from the pelvis to the crown of the head or if standing from the feet to the crown of the head.
There is no right or wrong way to feel - this is not a gotcha exercise - but now bringing some attention to the tip of your sternum or breastbone and in you minds eye noticing that if the tip of this bone were to extend or have a laser pointer shining out of it, where would it end? 1 foot in front of you, 3? More? Again, no right no wrong, just noticing.
(Pausing here before reading ahead to actually do this part of the experiment before moving on, as I acknowledge that one would most likely use their open eyes to read this.)
Then, for the purposes of this exercise - what is it is to invite the sternum to orient itself vertically - if it extended or was a laser pointer, it would be between your feet if standing, if sitting maybe just behind the belly button into the seat of the chair.
Then again, taking stock of your own sensations here -
(Again, Pausing here before reading ahead to actually do this part of the experiment before moving on)
It might feel like you are “hunched over” or “Way too far forward” over your pelvis.
Now is the time to open your eyes and check out the 2 dimensional image again - does it looked hunched , or different? Does that 2 dimensional image match the mutil dimensional experience of living in your body?
If there is any daylight there - that is what Alexander is speaking to when he talks about Faulty Sensory Awareness. He also called it “Debauched Kinesthesia” which frankly is a party i would go to, but it all adds up to - if we have been conditioned to hold ourselves, or if we have a pattern, and that pattern or habit is tweaked - it can feel subtly different or it can feel super weird - but the sensation is not familiar so the body wants to “correct” it back to “what it was” when we know that through recognition of the force of habit, that we might not be dealing with the most helpful set of conditions.
So - What is trustworthy if not our sense of the self? Your own ability to adapt and adjust, to recognize “over correction”, to recognize, through the context of both the multi dimensional “kinesthetic” sense of the self as well as the 2 dimensional image as a check-in - you are able to recognize when your own sensory awareness is perhaps not telling the whole truth.
Again, it is a matter of degrees - it is not this OR that - it is not a 1 or a 0 - it is your own sense of change and ability to release into what is supportive.