Inhibit the habit to mentally beat myself up about pain, misuse, confusion, the state of the world in general
One of the downsides of AT is that it offers perfectionists like me a wonderful stick to hit themselves with (like I needed another one...). Unreliable sensory awareness, the opposite of wrong is wrong...when you're not in high spirits in the first place, it's quite easy to slip into some kind of gloomy, "see, I'm wrong again, there's even an official theory about it, I won't ever get it, and even if I do, I won't know it, because I don't know when I'm right" state.

So, when I do end up in a situation of physical pain or emotional discomfort, the first thing I try to stop, is the start of the blame-game. Instead of noticing pain and feeling irritated about it, annoyed by it, or guilty because I must have done something wrong, I just try to register the situation as it is, which is simply "I feel a nagging sensation at the back of my shoulder, and it is starting to physically hurt". I try not to judge. I try not to be hard on myself. I try not to distance the part of my body or mind or soul that's hurting from the rest of me. Although it may sound terribly simple on paper, this part of my strategy probably took me the longest to learn.

Sometimes things just happen. Sometimes, I'm just what I am. Not everything happens in a logical or rational way. Which is not the same as accepting the situation and leaving it at that.

A while ago, Nick M. posted the following on the Alextech list:

I do, though, wonder what it is that you do, when confronted with the ache of
a stiff neck, apart from feeling irritated. Do you have an Alexander
strategy for these times whose purpose is to 'let the neck be free'? If
you do, can you describe it?

You may wonder why I ask what someone's 'Alexander strategy' is since
the outline of that strategy - inhibition and direction - is hardly
secret; but the finer details of what this might mean to an individual,
in an actual, living situation, is, in my opinion, woefully documented.

I really liked thinking about this question. Especially because articulation and 'AT confidence' seem to go hand in hand. In my first AT-less period, I still felt very dependent on something outside me, a teacher, a book, an authority or just knowledge. Perhaps too dependent, but I guess that's something you always face when you learn something new and valuable that you don't want to lose. This dependency has taught me a lot, though. I've consciously used every lesson I've taken since to develop my own AT strategy; something that wouldn't have happened if I'd just kept having lessons every week or so.

This list is an outline of my own AT strategy. I'll discuss each point in a separate post over the next few days.
1. Inhibit the urge to mentally beat myself up about pain, misuse, confusion and the state of the world in general.
2. Don't use AT to fix a broken leg.
3. Don't be serious.
4. Find my sitting bone.
5. Work my way up along the spine.
6. Free my neck.
7. ...even now...and now...