Well it’s March now, the New Year is well behind us but are you still trying to keep those resolutions and change some of your personal stuff? Like not looking after yourself re that pain in your neck, shoulders or back that’s getting worse? Or feeling heavy and tired most of the time with all that stress? And then, of course, you beat yourself up because you haven’t sustained it or you keep getting distracted.
If that’s you then read this little article by Oliver Burkeman from The Guardian; Getting distracted isn’t a problem; noticing when you’re distracted is arguably the point. He talks about Meditation, but Alexander Technique uses the same principles. It’s the ‘noticing’ that is important and the beginning of change.
Habits are very deep and persistent, whether it’s mental, physical or muscular. They don’t change quickly or easily. So by starting to notice you can remind yourself to do something different.
And rather than feeling bad that you’ve let yourself slip again, feel good that it’s given you a chance to think about it again and given you the choice to change your habit and do something different. Even if it only lasts a short while, but it will gradually get longer.
At Alexander Technique North London, we teach you to notice your postural alignment, notice if your weight is evenly balanced on your feet or on your sitting bones, notice the length of your neck or your back so that you can start to notice if you are more tense than you need to be, which causes pain and stress, and is very tiring.
Our muscles need to have tone to have strength and to be effective but they don’t need to be tense, especially not all the time, as you might find some of yours are. And this becomes a muscular habit, so it takes some attention and noticing to change it. But noticing it is a good thing, because then you continually have a chance to make a choice and do something about it. So be proud and feel good about that.
If you want to ‘notice’ your mental, physical or muscular habits then contact me so we can begin to make some positive changes.
