In certain actions, we seem to have a real-time sense of our movements as they unfold. For example, if you close your eyes right now and draw a large circle in the air with your forefinger, I’ll bet that you have a sense in real time that your forefinger is making a circular movement.
However, very often there seem to be ‘blind spots’ in our movement awareness. I remember during my Alexander Technique training consistently failing to ‘see’ myself kinaesthetically as I moved from walking into running. I could ‘see’ myself walking and ‘see’ myself running, but not during the in-between phase.
These ‘blind spots’ seem very often to occur in the ‘transitions’ between movements; for example,
I think these blind spots are caused by a desire to be at the next stage, meaning that, as far as our mental lives are concerned, we’re not in the present but have already got ‘there’. What underlies this desire could be all sorts of things: anxiety, impatience or simply habit. FM Alexander himself coined the term ‘end-gaining’ for this mentality, where the end becomes so all-consuming that we find it impossible to pay attention to the means.
Perhaps these movement blind spots wouldn’t matter so much if it weren’t for the fact that tension, malcoordination and poor balance seem to lurk behind them. Top musicians and sportspeople know very well that even a tiny amount of tightening has a disabling effect. Put simply, we often tend to tighten in preparation for action – particularly if we think that it’s going to be effortful or difficult – and over time this can lead to chronic tension and eventually discomfort and pain as well.
So, what’s to be done? Well, in short, learning the Alexander Technique. Penny Ingham and Colin Shelbourne describe the solution as follows:
We’ve learnt the habit – through repetition in formative years – of gearing ourselves up, ready for action, instead of smoothly going into that action … As you become more practised [at the Alexander Technique], you will be more aware of how you are moving, sitting or standing whilst engaged in everyday activities. It is a skill which can be learned – a slightly different mode of thinking with continuing benefits.
Penny Ingham & Colin Shelbourne, The Busy Body pp.19-21.
