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1] When we sit in meditation, it's up to us to notice when we've drifted off. There's no teacher in our heads to bring us back. In Alexander Technique sessions, the teacher is able to catch when a student's attention drifts - in the moment when it happens "Where did you go?"
2] It's the closest thing to telepathy I've come across. When I was the student, at first I didn't even recognize that I wasn't in the world at that moment. But my teacher did "Where did you go?" "...I don't know." "But you did go somewhere?" "Yes...how did you know?"
3] "It's my job." Heh, smart arse. When you've learned how to notice the configuration of someone else's awareness, and attention within it, you can point it out to them. This massively accelerates the process of bringing our awareness under our conscious constructive control.
4] We learn to notice triggers that take us out of directly experiencing the world. We learn to inhibit our habitual responses to those triggers that send us off into our thoughts and cause us to lose the world. And then we can make new choices, moment by moment. Pretty cool.
Meta] If you've come across this thread in isolation and want to go deeper then you might be interested in my 'thread of threads' on the topic. https://t.co/pppidMHSzH
Meta] Also, if you want to dive much deeper into this stuff, I have built what I believe is the only asynchronous online course that explores Alexander Technique from a first principles perspective. You can find out more and stay up to date by going here: https://t.co/GHzsyr4ILq
@nosilverv Yeah it's surreal to be on both the receiving end and then being able to do it. It goes beyond 'mere' noticing the drifting of attention. A teacher can notice the shape of your awareness, where your focus is and even the nature of the thoughts you're having.