Are you looking for long-term solutions chronic shoulder tension and back pain? Do you want more than drugs and surgery? Maybe you feel that those kind of interventions are too extreme for your situation, but no one has offered an alternative? To find out more about what the Alexander Technique can do for you, go here. Book a “Tension Free for a Flower” session!
When I get overwhelmed, as I’ve been by the results of the past election, I take refuge in distraction. Distraction, over the long haul, ends up manifesting in my body as chronic tension. It’s a state of shut-down and disassociation.
I know that rest, positivity, and yes, even pleasure, are what I really need to reset my system, but if everyone around me is freaking out, it’s natural to freak out too. I’ve finally reached such a state of outrage, however, that I’m more determined than ever to keep my focus on freedom and rainbows and positivity. I simply will not let fear mongers have their way with my spirit.
In November, pre-election, I wrote about feeling good. At the time, I thought it was just about getting through the worst of it until after Trump lost…but now it’s a lot longer haul isn’t it? Dear reader, I’m making assumptions about you. If you are feeling happy about the results of the election, I truly hope you won’t take offense, but read on just to find out about someone who feels differently than you do. I ask myself, Is it still OK for me to choose ease, to feel good?
It’s a profound decision to say “yes, especially now.” I’m even more thankful for the work I get to share, the wonderful colleagues I work with, (special thanks to Michaela Hauser-Wagner and all the Alexander Teachers who came to my workshop in CT!!) and all my students who dare to dream of something better for themselves and the world.
The state that I enter when I’m using the Alexander Technique can be challenging, though, because it opens us up to our full range of sensations and emotions. Students in my open group class at Movement Research were crying, fearful, and worried about the future of the arts in America. Some of them are young people, visitors here from other countries. They come here to share their dreams and their visions for the future. Our new president wants to shut their voices out, and they know it. He wants us to be afraid of one another. Nothing that he says, to me, is forward thinking, generous, spacious, or positive.
That’s why this month’s video is about opening your throat! If we let our throat open, air and sustenance come in, and resonant, powerful sound comes out. It feels bad to be so frightened that you think you must hold feelings and sound inside. Pulling your face inwards compresses the part of our body that opens, eats, speaks, and shouts! Finding the support you need to step out of fear is a lifelong project. I have found that an open throat is key to conquering chronic shoulder tension, and the fear of falling that comes along with it. It’s a simple, basic state of openness that can support you when you need it the most. It’s the central principle of the Alexander Technique.
An open throat can also sing songs of freedom, hope, and rainbows. Here’s a good one that I learned over the holiday. It’s so good that it will drown out all the negativity around you! Once you’ve heard it you will never be able to get it out of your head, either.
Want some support for staying positive in – even because of – dark times? Give me a call. I wish my phone number was 1-800-Rainbows!