Posts Tagged ‘Tai Chi Technique’

This ebook, Tai Chi and the Alexander Technique Principles of Good Body Use, is published in a PDF format. It is very detailed and practical, and it will give you the physical tools you need to take the limits off of your ability to do tai chi with ease, elegance, poise, and released joints.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)

I’ve been a certified Alexander Technique teacher for over 25 years, and I’ve been experiencing being off balance when I walk.

A few years ago I was very sick and lost a lot of weight, but at this point I’ve regained all of my former muscle and strength. (I’m into weightlifting.)

So, what’s the problem?

I began to look at what I was doing when I walked. I was really surprised at what I discovered.

Two years after being really sick and very weak, I discovered I had carried over a habit of only looking inside me to make sure I was balanced, when I was so weak.

This doesn’t work. Why?

Because if you only look inside for balance in walking you begin to hunker down and only pay attention to your feet and legs.

YOU LOSE YOUR CENTER.

What does losing your center mean? You internalize your body awareness from the bottom up, which almost always mean you collapse your upper body to keep from falling over. This means you end up with a hunkered down posture (a curved over back and the whole body off balance). You are then bracing and tensing from the bottom up. You become so afraid of falling over, that you move tentatively and sway from side to side. THIS IS NOT WALKING LIGHTLY IN BALANCE!

This is what was happening to me, and I’m a three year trained Alexander Technique teacher. There was another major component that greatly contributed to my loss of balance.

I was so unconsciously paying only attention to what was going on in my body, that I completely disconnected from my surroundings.

How does this this affect balance?

When you’re walking and you’re obsessed with internal support and balance, you lose all orientation to your surroundings. It’s like being a high wire aerialist who is only focused on the next step and has lost all sense of form and technique.

WHEN YOU WALK TOTALLY INTERNALIZED, YOU LOSE THE “SUPPORT” OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS. This means you don’t have the external world’s feedback assisting you, “telling” you if you’re walking in balance in relationship to the things around you.

It would be like driving a car, and only paying attention to the car and not the road. You lose all points of reference and you will veer off the road.

When you walk with only body awareness and are disconnected from your surroundings, you’re not consciously using the Alexander Technique’s upwards balanced flow in your body assisted by what your eyes are picking up around you, so you begin to “veer off the road”.

If you don’t bring the internal and the external feedback together, and only rely on the internal, you will probably start walking like an “old person”, which means hunkered down, off balance, shuffling your feet, and not bending your knees.

WHETHER YOU’RE AWARE OF IT, IF THE ABOVE HAPPENS, YOU ARE BECOMING MORE AND MORE AFRAID OF WALKING.

If this this happening to you, then run (fully upright) to buy my ebook called “An Alexander Technique Approach to Effortless Walking” on this website.

Contact me if you buy my ebook, and I can offer some further advice on walking.