Every action we take is like going on a journey. And, just like any journey, we’ve been conditioned to believe we need to pack in a particular way before we can begin. We gather our familiar luggage—the sensations, tensions, and feelings we've always associated with moving. Without even realizing it, we prepare ourselves in exactly the same way every time. That preparation becomes the signal: “Okay, I’m ready. I can go now.”
But the thing we rarely notice—is that this act of packing is also the first step in recreating the habit. We unconsciously generate a feeling that matches our habitual way of doing something. That feeling becomes our visa, our passport. It's what gives us permission to cross the border between not-moving and moving.
Imagine this: you’re about togo from not raising your arms to raising them. At the threshold, you pause and check, “Do I have my visa?” And if the habitual feeling is there—some tension in the shoulders, maybe a subtle bracing in the breath—you’re cleared for entry. You go. But you’re not going freely. You’re traveling with the same old habitual baggage.
In the Alexander Technique, what we’re learning to do to move without packing. To take the journey without the visa. To cross the border without that familiar habitual sense of "being prepared". And that’s unsettling. Our nervous system is wired to crave sanctioned movement—movement that feels safe because it’s familiar, not because it’s actually healthy or efficient.
Constructive thinking invites us into a different kind of travel—one where we don’t rely on those old permissions. It asks: what if I don’t recreate the familiar feeling? What if I don’t pack? What if I just... go?
And it’s hard to do that because we’ve made the feeling of “readiness” inseparable from the act of moving itself. So we don’t even see the moment we cross from ease into effort. I’m standing here, relaxed. Then I think, “Raise your arms”—and instantly, I feel my biceps engage, my body brace. That tension is in the suitcase I’ve always carried. But do I really need it?
The Alexander Technique is all about learning how to move with less baggage. It's about discovering that you don’t actually need a passport to take that trip. That you don’t need permission from your old habits to take a step or strum your guitar. All you need to do is pause, do some constructive thinking, and then be willing to "take a gambling chance" as Marjorie Barstow used to say. It's a challenge but it makes it possible for us to go somewhere new, in a new way, with a much lighter load
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