5 steps to freedom from habits of negative self-judgement

Have you ever found yourself in scary loop of self awareness and negativity?

Something about you comes into your awareness, and your heart sinks. This starts an often unconscious “trying to fix it loop” that makes you miserable.

There’s the visual version of this, when you see yourself in a mirror, and don’t like what you see. It knows no age limit and can plague sensitive people young and old.

There’s also a sensory version of this negativity loop that happens when you tune into your body, and what you feel is tension, or negative in some way. If there is unpleasantness either physically or emotionally, of course you want to fix it.

Trying to fix it is a trap.

For example, I’ve been in some kind of weird internal tizzy for days now, and I really have no idea why. I’m not above just wanting it to go away, and I don’t think you should be either. Whole body awareness is the way out, but there are some nuances that can make the difference between escape versus falling back into the trap.  

Unfortunately, you might find yourself chasing that tension or tizzy around your body-mind all day. It goes away when you are distracted by something that needs your attention, but every time you have a quiet moment it returns. Then you fall asleep and it starts all over again.

If you relate to the paragraph above, I can totally understand why becoming more aware of your body might make you queezy. This can be a big block to learning anything about yourself, but unfortunately knowledge about yourself doesn’t solve the problem either.

The more you know about yourself, the worse your body-mind-negativity loop can get. There’s a long list of how things should be, emotionally and physically, in your brain. You have so many ways to fix what’s wrong, you can never just…be.

That’s because any attempt to “fix it” is physically expressed in a narrow focus on “the problem” and “the solution.” 

This narrowing of focus causes a constriction of tissue, which restricts blood flow and oxygen. Over time, this intensifies the negative feedback loop and triggers a cascade of problems that it’s hard to get out of. Pain is only one of them.

There is a fundamental skill missing. It’s absence can really suck all the joy out of the room, out of your body, and out of your heart.

That skill is whole body awareness. There is an entire lifetime of research and experience of teaching the Alexander Technique behind that phrase for me. I trust that if I share it with you in today’s video, you’ll get a new understanding that will bypass any skepticism.

It’s silly really, because all it takes is curiosity, and 5 easy steps towards a more expansive awareness of yourself.

Those steps are:

Spine

Head

Torso

Legs

Arms

That’s it! I swear! The magic isn’t in the steps, but in how you do the steps. That’s the secret sauce the video will give you.

This is part of a Fundamental Awareness Skills for Joy series I’ll be posting. If you want some bespoke support around building your capacity for whole body awareness, consider booking a free 15 minute consult or a first lesson with me – in person or online.