1. awareness or attention to the means whereby-how we do something
2. inhibition - withholding one's immediate response, and
   
3. direction - the ability to carry out an activity while consciously influencing the quality of the activity.

Awareness includes intention and attention - having clarity and presence in the daily activities of life. Awareness sharpens our senses, allowing us to gather information about ourselves - our emotional, mental, and physical responses to things. The Alexander Technique cultivates an expanded state of awareness, where both internal body sensations and information from our external world are sensed simultaneously.

Inhibition is an elegant tool for changing unwanted habits. Unlike the Freudian concept of repression, inhibition is freeing, in that we are no longer bound to habitual behaviors or actions. Inhibition means withholding one's immediate response and changing strategies when the old ones no longer seem effective. It is inhibition that enables us to organize our thoughts and movements into clear, satisfying ways of being

The Primary Control

While working on his vocal problem, Alexander observed that by employing the three principles of awareness, inhibition, and direction, he experienced a sense of psychophysical integration. He found that when his head, neck, and back were organized in a particular way, the rest of the body could move freely and easily in a coordinated fashion. He called this relationship of head, neck, and back to the rest of the body, the Primary Control. Little did he know at the time that other notable scientists and biologists had already discovered the same mechanisms at work in animals. Extra tension, especially in the area of the head and neck, blocks important information from being received by our kinesthetic (movement) receptors, so our responses may be inappropriate; we may overuse some muscles and underuse others. When we let go of unnecessary tension, our postural reflexes are free to operate and the Primary Control is enhanced.