It’s Time for Spring Cleaning!

Read this article in Chinese 本文中文版 >> HERE

Written by Aimee Liu｜Translated by Aik Hooi Lee

Are you spring cleaning for Lunar New Year? Through tidying and removing old dirt, your space will be filled with fresh, positive energy. Why not give yourself a treat too?

Our muscles remember the way we use ourselves. Muscle memory is a natural physiological mechanism. When our body is learning something new, the brain will utilize an appropriate amount of motor units to complete a task. A neurological “pathway” will be created through the central nervous system, which helps your movement becomes automatic and stored as muscle memory. The more frequent we use these “pathways”, the stronger its muscle memory is. Even if you take some time off, your body will still be familiar with those activities (e.g.: ride a bike, swim, jog, etc.) . 

Muscle memory exists the moment we were born. From looking up, crawling, sitting, standing, walking, running; these movements were repeated countless of times until they could be performed without conscious effort. This process reduces the need for attention so there is maximum efficiency within the motor and memory systems.

When people talk about "muscle", it is a common trap to separate physical body and mental consciousness. Muscle memory is not purely physical. Besides storing movement patterns, it records our emotions, ideas, or even thinking habits. Recall these emotional states of happiness, sadness, or anger -- how differently does your muscles respond? Or during moments of fear, before you know it, your muscles have already started to tense up.

Efficient muscle memory can help you perform daily activities with ease. On the other hand, insufficient knowledge on anatomy, uninformed training, injuries, lack of body awareness, or depression, may contribute to creating wrong neuro-pathways and movement patterns. They will develop into unconscious habits and will be difficult to change.

Habitual patterns, like dust, accumulates in our lives. The good news is, we all have the ability to deal with it and remove it. You might think: "Oh, habits are bad, just like dirty dust, let us destroy it forever!" Unfortunately, it doesn’t work this way. In life it is impossible to have a perfectly dust-free room (come to think about it, living in that room sounds scary and boring). Our mind and body is our unique “home”. Thanks to the presence of dust, with every cleaning, we have the opportunity to review, renew and to fall in love with it over and over again.

The Alexander Technique is a tool to help you discover, appreciate and clean your habits. It is not a psychological treatment (although many people would be surprised through practicing the technique, it helped them emotionally such as in anger management). With the teacher’s knowledge, observation, and touch, we focus on the present moment while guiding students to be aware of their psychophysical being. Through simple movements, we examine student’s habits, and then allow their brain to create a new and more efficient “pathway”. Under an Alexander Technique teacher’s guidance, it takes less time for you to discover those unwanted habits, and learn a more efficient way of using your body. Although it is often difficult to perceive our habits by ourselves, that doesn't mean you cannot practice self-awareness and start to listen to the dialogues in your mind and body. You are your own body.

Every time you walk, sit, stand, or wait for someone, these are wonderful opportunities to practice. When possible, I highly recommend you to spend 10-15 minutes a day on semi-supine constructive rest. Try to observe your head-neck relationship, breathing, spine, be aware of their inner desire to change. See if this idea to change causes any muscular tension or physical transformation. If you are willing to spend time to self observe, you have already begun to clear things up.

Please feel free to share with us your self observation, experiences and what awareness means to you. Next time, I will share “the different levels of awareness” from the Alexander Technique perspective.

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