Being upright beings on just two feet, it is a good feeling to have good posture which allows all our vital organs to have enough space to work well. However, this means that we have to constantly bend down either to squat/sit or deal with something that is below our height. As young children, we did this naturally with grace and ease but, as we become adults, poor habits of movement, sedentary lifestyle, injuries and illness can affect our ease at performing these movements. We then get stuck in harmful movement habits that can create, and then prolong, unnecessary tension and pain.
In the Alexander Technique, the most prominent, ‘Position of mechanical advantage’, a term coined by the founder of the technique, F. M. Alexander, is the one used to lower our height. Over the years, I have asked my clients: ‘How many times would you sit down/ bend down every day and I’ve had answers that range from 30 – 100. If we use the example of 50 times per day, that would be approximately 350 times per week/1400 times per month/16,800 times per year.
Now, please allow me to ask you a question. If you habitually carried out these bending movements in a way that compromised your structure e.g. distorting your spine and upper body to compensate for not using your very strong legs in a supportive way, then do think that your body might complain? What would you do about that? Would you seek temporary pain relief from drugs or seeing a remedial therapist of some kind or, would you look to find the cause of the problem? I would suggest the latter may be a good idea.
Cue: The Alexander Technique. Re-learning to perform these basic everyday movements can transform your life. Your body remembers how you used to lower your height with ease and grace as a child and, in your lessons, you can turn the clock back. The other side of the coin is, that as you start to carry out these habitual movements in the natural way again, your body regains strength, mobility, co-ordination and balance. Instead of compromising your structure through habitual poor movement patterns, you are now strengthening your whole being. Oh yes, this leads to you feeling better about yourself as well.
By just having a handful of lessons now, you will learn vital information that can make your middle and older years into a much better proposition with improved mobility, balance and co-ordination. It can be your most sensible investment for a better future.
