Alexander Technique releases your emergency brake—by releasing your emergency neck.
We tighten our neck when there’s an emergency, and some of us live in a constant state of emergency.
Our collapse starts from our neck and, we hold stress in our neck.
It’s fight or flight— The stress is the fight, and the collapse is the flight.
Set yourself free.
Releasing your neck sets you free from the confinement of a compressed spine, as well as the tensed state of the startle response; both leading to a depressed, downward posture.
Freeing your neck releases you into your “primary movement” which is…Up.
You need to generate the energy to go up, so that gravity and life’s challenges don’t bring you down.
“The primary movement is up. You initiate the movement by undoing the catch, by taking the brake off. You’ve got this ongoing flow of energy that is seeking to take you up against all the downward forces, and going up is what happens when you release the neck.” *
Does good posture require muscular effort?
*”You might say, to stand up or sit up against the downward forces involves muscular effort. Of course it does, obviously. But, the muscular effort to go up comes second to the sensory awareness and the sensory input.”
It’s less about the who, what, when, where, or why, and more about the how.
Got down? Get up.
“Now, life is full of influences to get us down. Emotional, psychological and, of course, physical. Though we think immediately of gravity, psychological forces are just as powerful in many cases in forcing us to sink down.”
When you apply the Alexander Technique, moving up becomes a choice; a sustainable choice. A choice you can live with.
Where does the energy to go up come from? From you; all of you— your mind, body, spirit, and will. Will you move up? Your choice.
*All quotes by Walter Carrington
Mark Josefsberg-Alexander Technique NYC
(917) 709-4648
Image courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net-Arrows Background Means Upwards Direction Or Increase by Stuart Miles
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