One of the chief aims of the Alexander Technique is heightened consciousness. (F.M. said of his work, “It is quickening the conscious mind.”) Consciousness in what we are doing and how we are doing it in life, unfailingly leads a person to a state of prevention of disease, mental and physical malformations, and loss of general efficiency.
A person needs reasoned conscious thinking to be successful in the world he has created for himself. His environment is changing with new technologies that compress time and add stress in greater demands. He has no time for himself. He almost never rests and unwinds. Even the poise and balance of the animal or savage is no longer operating well for him.
This adds to his erosion mentally, spiritually and physically. In fact many times illnesses such as cancer, tuberculosis, heart trouble, appendicitis and a slew of others go undetected in the sufferer because he feels so low anyway that his feeling sense (F.M. called this our kinesthesia) is too dulled to alert him. The average person is imperfectly coordinated and the only guide he has is subconscious. Because the subconscious is based on haphazard experience and false fixed ideas, it is inevitable that this state will lead to trouble for him.
Therefore even simple movements when directed subconsciously can have ill effects on other parts of the “body.” For example, some people get eyestrain because they unconsciously move the eyes unnecessarily before they want to move their necks. When they become conscious of what they are doing and stop it, the eyestrain goes away and the eyes regain their efficiency. Through ongoing lessons, the Alexander Technique brings our habits into our consciousness, so that we may direct ourselves in a way that yields positive results.