Write This Way
For quite a while now we’ve been spending less time writing and more time at the computer. Writing, however, provides us another opportunity to become aware of our habits. Since most of our writing is done seated, we want to learn to be as easeful as possible in this position, since we often we sit for hours a day.
The first thing we might examine is how much tension we have while seated. Are we overly tensed? Are we collapsed? Sometimes, we’re both tensed and collapsed. Some muscles are working more than necessary, some muscles less.
Notice the grip you have on your pen. What’s the minimum amount of tension required? You might become aware of the fact that when you overly grip your pen, you’re probably gripping in other places too. You might be tensing not only your writing hand, but the other hand as well. Notice, even when you make a fist, if the tension goes up the arm, possibly all the way up to your shoulders or neck. Since muscles shorten when they work, you might be compressing your cervical spine just because you’re writing.
Notice if you’re tensing your jaw as you write. Are you able to use more finger motion and less arm and shoulder? How little tension do you need in the hand that isn’t writing? How do you get your eyes closer to the paper without collapsing? Are you using your hip joints to pivot forward, or are you creating a hinge in the lumbar spine?
Writing with ease begins with sitting with ease. Here are some tips, and here’s a little more about the Alexander Technique.
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