AT Archives - Alexander Technique with Deborah Levy

Busy, busy, busy…… we’re all so busy keeping up, catching up, deleting this, deleting that, wading through things we need to do, being bombarded with information, demands, new research about food and health…. And on and on it goes…..

And within all this, all those articles telling you that you need to look after yourself are right. You just need to find something that ‘does it’ for you, that speaks to you, something you can relate to.

This article got me thinking; How to make time for Self-Care. It talks about how to find time in your working day to have some exercise to feel re-charged. That’s great, but it doesn’t have to be in the gym or even exercise. It could be going swimming or for a walk or it could be lying on the floor with your head on a 3-5cm book with your knees up to align your body and mind.

Alternatively, you can find lots of moments throughout the day to align yourself and feel refreshed and grounded. You can notice how you sit and let your back lengthen and release, aligning yourself on your sitting bones, or you can notice how you stand or walk. Alexander Technique can teach you to find these ‘mindful’ moments, on the go, so that you can learn to reduce your stress and pain and feel more refreshed and lighter, with more energy. But it also teaches you what your old physical and thought habits are and how to give them up to make choices about responses that contribute to your well-being and make you feel better.

So this article got me thinking as well; Should you delete Social Media? By Oliver Burkeman. He talks about the pros and cons of social media for mental health but also about the issue of how we make choices or don’t make choices, as the case may be. But, in fact, he points out that even by doing nothing you are still making a choice. You are making a choice to do nothing and keep the status quo even if you are unhappy with it. Again, this is pertinent to Alexander Technique because AT is also about understanding how you move and balance so that you can learn to make a choice to respond with more alignment to movement or situations rather than react with old harmful habits.

Some people say to me that they are too old to change or that they have always been ‘whatever’ and can’t change. But that doesn’t have to be the case. You can make a choice to learn to notice your habits and learn how to change them and do things to empower yourself, whether it’s finding time for yourself, doing more exercise or deleting social media. If you decide to make a change and want to find out more about Alexander Technique, then get in touch.

Stress? Take it lying down!

So, what is that supposed to mean?

Does it sound like jargon to you? What is the Alexander Technique and what has it got to do with stress?

Firstly, let’s call Alexander Technique ‘AT’ for short! I think it’s friendlier!

So, AT is all about understanding where we have unnecessary tension, how we are working our muscles too hard, and how we can learn to be balanced, strong and poised but with less tension.

It sounds easy doesn’t it?

But of course it isn’t because we all have loads of habits that hang on to the tension without us realising it.

So AT is also about learning what our habits are and learning how to notice them and how to stop doing them, i.e. ‘do something different’ or move in a different way.

But AT is also about how we think and feel and it’s easier to change what we think than what we feel.

Think about it – you can change what you say to yourself but if you notice how you feel about something you have to really persuade yourself to think through what you’re feeling to really ‘feel’ differently.

Anyway, the point is, AT can teach us how to ‘think’ differently.

Our thoughts are governed by our habits too. Are you a ‘glass half empty person’ or a ‘glass half full’?

So, with being mindful, we can notice what our pattern of thoughts are and learn how to change them, or ‘think something different’

In turn, this can influence our mood and how we feel about things!

But coming back to stress and ‘lying down’.

AT teaches you how to notice yourself and one way of doing this is the very enjoyable AT lying down – AT people call it ‘constructive rest’ or ‘semi-supine’.

The point is that you have a smallish book under your head and your knees up so that your head, neck and back can align together and you let yourself melt into the floor – enjoy it!

Actually, it really is very enjoyable – it helps to release tension and calms your mind and you come back to your day feeling refreshed and revived.

When you have an AT lesson, the teacher very gently moves your arms, legs and head to help to align you even further but it is still worth it doing it on your own.

So have a go, do it on your own or book a lesson!

AT

Busy, Busy, Busy!

International Alexander Awareness Month October 2017