Alexander Technique Lessons. #3
Alexander Technique Lessons. #3
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly that it is wrong to treat a painful back as a local condition. Back pain is always accompanied and preceded by general misuse.”
Dr. Wilfred Barlow
Alexander Technique lessons. #1 was about oppositions. Alexander Technique lessons. #2 regarded freeing the neck so the head can move forward and up. Alexander Technique lessons. #3 concerns lengthening and widening of the torso. So far Alexander’s primary directions have been: ‘I wish to free my neck, so that my head can move forward and up.’ Next is: ’so that my torso can lengthen and widen.’ ‘So that’ may be two of the most important words here. If your neck is overly tensed, it can bring your head back and down making your torso shorter and narrower. These primary directions are preventive ideas. I wish to free my neck may be interpreted to mean: I want to stop tightening my neck. ‘So that my head moves forward and up’= so I don’t pull my head back and down, compressing my spine. ‘So that my torso can lengthen and widen’ = so I stop shortening and narrowing my torso.
So, if your neck is tense or, more in terms of the Alexander Technique, if you’re tensing your neck, not only will it bring your head back and down, but it will shorten and narrow your torso, giving you a sunken, round-shouldered look. You can try it yourself to see, or maybe you’re trying it right now as you collapse towards the computer screen. Don’t worry; we’re all doing it to a degree. Once we become aware of these detrimental habits, we can slowly stop doing them. At least we can start to do them less often, and less intensely. Large transformations can start with small, positive changes.
The torso starts at the pelvic floor and goes all the way up to where the cervical spine meets the head, which is higher up than we usually think.
Note that the torso includes the lower back and the neck, two places people most often report pain. (pain in the neck; pain in the butt?)
We don’t want to shorten and narrow our torsos. We want the opposite of this self inflicted compression. We want expansion. We want our head away from torso, arms away from torso and legs away from torso.
Mark Josefsberg-Alexander Technique NYC
917.709.4648
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