Alexander Technique, Muscle Pain & Computer Work

hello come in you too have a seat so you're Rebecca Becky Becca okay so have you had any Alexander lessons before good have you heard about it from anyone from Daniel all right what's going to happen today is I'm going to give you a traditional Alexander lesson and the important thing to remember is you can't make any mistakes I'm here to demonstrate what a lesson is and you're here to support that that process so for the next 45 minutes or so I'm the one that's really on in the hot seat and you are just here to help me Express the Alexander Technique and demonstrate how how it works and what we do have you got any aches pains anything that hurts like new muscles that haven't been working for a while yes as a result of these the workout and before you're working out any habitual patterns eggs pains neck shoulders back yes yes so at the end of a hard day in front of the computer you might notice stiffness in in the neck and the shoulders in the lower back fine and right now anything that you can experience no good so we're going to start and it'll be a mixture of movement sitting standing and maybe a bit of walking and then we'll do a little bit of table work as well have you got any questions to ask me before we jump into the deep end good first of all thanks for coming so we'll start with you standing up and you can look out of the window come a bit closer to this stool and what we'll do is you have a look out of the window and stand in front of the chair because you'll be sitting and down and that's fine and if you've got any questions while we're working any discomfort any any questions at all about the technique and what I'm doing these are asked there's no wrong time to ask okay usually the first thing I do is I I do simple movements like moving moving your head and I might move an arm and if I want you to do a movement yourself rather than me moving you I'll ask you so now making life a bit easier have your feet a bit wider apart so I'm moving your head and as far as possible you're letting me do the moving and you're not initiating the movement for me and there's nothing you need to do in terms of going inside and working anything out or feeling something you don't need to do anything at all and when I ask you to do something then that's the only time you'll need to do anything in particular so right now I want you to just go on to the tip of your toes and then I want you to come down to the heels and stop that's it I'm going to go onto your toes and I want you to come down to the heels yep and now have your head there I want you to go onto the toes and I want you to come down to the heels yeah now I want you to soften a little bit behind the knees that's it that'll do perfect and now all I want from you is to take your hips back as you go towards the chair and you get there you can stop all the way to the stool and when you get to the store wait there for a while I'll move you backwards move you forwards I'll move you backwards I'll move you forwards so you can see at the moment I'm the mover and you're allowing me moving you you're allowing your body to go wherever it's taken with their hands unless I ask you to do a movement and at the moment all I'm asking is for you to go along with you're allowing yourself to be moved by my hands wherever they take you and I'm going to take you a little bit further forwards and wait they're fine now I want you to do something a bit more demanding I want you to stand up with your heels now that's it and now I want you to bend the knees until you hit the chair when you get to the chair leave the feet just where they are and again stand out with your heels and then bend the knees and then stop there for a while and wait and without changing very much gently stand up with the heels and gently bend the knees again hold it there I'll move you back and I'll move you forwards so that's me backing going back to me moving you in contrast to when I asked you to do a movement like sitting and standing so I'm moving you right now stop right there and nothing else happens you can come up with your heels stop there and then bend the knees and stop there and wait and stand up with your heels yes stop there bend the knees all the way and stop there and then stand up with the heels and then bend your knees mm-hmm and hold it there and stand up with the heels and then bend your knees I'm going to move you forward and stop I'm going to move you backwards that's fine and anything that feels strange or different or in any way confusing let me know I'm going to move your arm do you need to spend a lot of time on an average day at a computer yeah I also broke my right shoulders and my my shoulders a little bit oh my whole right side can be a bit more tense right yeah how long ago was that did it heal okay why is it right and I'm going to move you again there's some good to move you over to the side when I'm going to move you over to the front so now as I'm moving you backwards and forwards tell me what you think is happening in the neck region as you're moving backwards and forwards yeah it's not changing is it you're managing to keep it in the same condition it's not Howard as in fixed it's just not disturbing yeah let me take you further forwards so the next very interesting when the neck gets disturbed it's a sign that your whole being is being a bit disturbed but when your neck is not getting jammed up it's a sign that you're managing things pretty well another way of saying that you're managing stress for instance say your neck gets very very tight and your shoulders get involved in whatever you're doing computing sitting standing thinking whatever you're up to household things you're getting all jammed up here that would be a sign that you're not doing the best you could so when the neck is not getting involved and it's staying in the condition of ease that's a sign that you're looking after yourself to a higher level does that make sense yeah my job is to help you look after yourself to a higher level than normal and that has to carry through to everyday life you're not being as kind as you could be to your body that's exactly it so when you go around like this all day and you end up with as you say neck and shoulder pain at the end of being on a computer for a while and probably quite a concentrated and stressy condition that's not as kind as if you end up after a few hours on a computer and you're still light as a feather with no sensation of aches and pains at all that would be better so the neck is a barometer of whether you're nice to yourself one whether you're kind to yourself the neck that gets all jammed up and the whole spine getting compressed would be a sign that you're not as kind to yourself as you could be and one way of describing the Alexander Technique is a way to learn how to be kinder to yourself in everyday living yeah take you further forwards so if that's the case learning how to be kinder to yourself what do you see the teaching all about how do you see the Alexander Technique working what would I be teaching you if I'm teaching you to be kind to yourself what would it mean for your neck and back yes so it would it initially like now heels stand up you are doing very simple everyday movements and you're not snatching your taking time you're not rushing ahead of yourself stand up with the heels and you can see that from sitting to standing you're not being unkind to your neck and spine you can feel that can't you or your shoulders or the jaw or the forehead or the eyes you know if you get stressed out or upset about something the whole body goes into a bit of a pickle and the Alexander process is all about not being overly disturbed for too much of a day or when you do get upset or in a hurry or worried or anxious or depressed you recover quicker and come back to this so coming back to this condition which is easy is something that you learn in the Alexander process and right now how do you learn it not by me telling you nice things about how to be kind to yourself you can read that in a book my job is to give you the experience of a different way of being so that you understand it on a on an embodied level on a real level not just an intellectual idea so I take you forwards that's it or I might take you over there and then as you in this lovely condition of ease which you clearly are you stand up with your heels and you got out of a chair then you had an experience what was it like to get out of a chair in that condition that's right not hard heels what else is a description to describe these movements right now fluid yep so you have an experience of fluid which is a very very classic Alexandr experience fluid as opposed to what be the normal do you think if you threw your fluid now compared to what you would normally feel how would you describe what the everyday for most of us is if it isn't fluid tense jarring jerky tense and that's what most of us live with and we think it's normal until you have an experience with fluid so in Alexander your your job is under the guidance of a teacher to have more fluid more flow more fluid easier lighter more efficient less demand on the neck and shoulders and back in everyday activities computing sitting standing driving doing stuff at home sports music doesn't matter and staying with that condition of course as you go onto your toes and in that condition as you come down to the heels and it's not about staying like this in the same position because that wouldn't be fluid anymore that would be breaking the fluid that'll be interfering with flow yeah so I work with ballet dancers because sometimes ballet dancers put a bit too much ballet into things you know exactly there you go so so that's not my job to make you go like this because that will be putting non fluid into the story and then do you see what you did with your eyes as well do it again yeah that's it yeah and everyone does that it's a very normal thing so my job isn't to get you into another pose a ballet pose which puts more effort into it but to allow you to be just Becca without disturbing Becca as you go onto your toes and not to associate it with her a ballet game so you're staying Becca as you go into your toes but undisturbed Becca down to your heels the highest level of Alexander is to recover being undisturbed in everyday activities rather than staying disturbed and repeating disturb all the time now hips back and bend the knees yes so you get to a chair and it doesn't have to be even thought about heels and then bend the knees again and then heels and then bend the knees again and then heels and then bend the knees again we could repeat this over and over again heels and bend the knees yes so right now what's your experience of the spine nothing well as in nothing yep yeah so I get that and nothing is probably the most important word in my understanding of Alexander nothing when you say nothing it helps me understand that you have the right experience because it's nothing compared to it's a good thing nothing is a good thing nothing compared to the something that we're very familiar with there there's something of the jamming of the head into the spine and there's something of the shoulders compressing and the aches and pains that we create through all the compression that's or something when you have the absence of the something you have your yeah your nothing so my job is to give you all that nothing bend the knees repeatedly all that nothing stand it with the heels and to help you have the nothing in everyday life doesn't mean nothing happens that's another game but the emptiness of nothing in the middle of the most demanding of activities what's the most demanding activities do dance right so when everyone's watching you and you have to perform yeah and what when you're not at your best what would happen in front of an audition of Examiners when you have to perform and you're not doing so well with yourself what would happen that would be a sign that you're not coping too well exactly yeah you'd freeze wouldn't you you'd have a bit of stage fright that sort of thing so that would be uh something ideally what you'd like is to walk into an audition correct Waitrose and now hips back and bend the knees and stop that's it and then heels and bend the knees so I think you've described it really well if you could walk into an audition with the nothing then it would be a much higher level of an audition then we know with all the some things that you do when you hold your breath and you freeze a little bit it wouldn't allow such high level performance with it it would interfere yeah so we're very much in the business of preventing interference with natural performance not learning another thing called Alexander performance which would be a bit daft wouldn't it got to be an Alexander person that would be another something so real Alexander is literally nothing it isn't another something called Alexander walking or Alexander sitting or an Alexander shape of my back and Alexander place of my shoulders it's literally nothing compared to the something that most of us bring to an Alexander class and now nothing has you gone to your toes hmm and nothing down to the heels and then nothing as your hips come back as your knees that's good and all the way to the stool and still nothing even if your head is there or there and there too and still nothing as I take you backwards still nothing as I take you forwards and stop and stay gently against me to stop you doing something called jumping out of your skin stay back and then heels that's it bend your knees over your toes and stop heels and bend the knees and stop heels very good bend the knees over your toes and heels and then bend the knees again how you doing with this your legs coping heel bend your knees and the heel is this isn't leg exercise even though it might feel like it it's brain exercise even though you're working your legs rather hard bend the knees and it's the brain exercise of learning to do nothing compared to the something that would normally happen and then heels and bend the knees and stop there for a while and heels and then bend the knees over the toes from there yes and I take you here and here and stop I'll take an arm what's happening in your brain is you're doing all these demanding sittings and standings quite sensitive yeah when you say the word censored what does it mean to you in the eye of the storm rather than actually being being the storm right in the center of the cyclone there was a wonderful book written in the 60s called center of the cyclone written by I think he's called John Lilly it was about how to remain centered right in the center where all the world around you is going absolutely crazy and you're absolutely still right in the center of the tornado and it's very much a description of the experience you're you're talking about and then stop and then wait I'll take you there so to remain centered well maybe every what everyone around you is going bonkers stay with my hands and gently stand up with the heels and then bend the knees from there and heels and bend the knees and then heel and then bend the knees and heel here and then walk to the window and then just come back again quite quickly yes that's good and then back again yeah excellent and then feet wide ish bend the knees what's it like feeling centered in the center of these I'm not putting pressure on myself to do something right yeah so the pressure to do something right to succeed and do it well is a mental and a physical pressure and when you don't do that it feels rather nice doesn't it the absence of that familiar way of treating ourselves which is quite punishing got to get it right and that translates into quite a lot of physical tension as well and right now your ex you're experiencing yourself without having to get something right which means all that drops and you experience being in the center without getting caught up in all the frazzle nor the height so you can automatically experience that this Alexander process is a mind-body process it's not just about your mental system or your postural patterns but something includes mind and body at this center of the cyclone business is a mental capacity the mental experience as well as a a body experience of freedom and flow being fluid stay there for a while and then stand up with the heels again yes and then bend the knees and then heels so you can see the the symmetry of the fluid experience of the body and the centeredness of the mind you get that relationship and that is a relationship it's very real and obviously the opposite is real when the brain is really disturbed like in an audition and frazzled with getting it right as you very nicely put it the body will have a corresponding reality of bracing and holding of the breath and the two things go together you're either trying to get it right and freezing and the brain goes into a disturbed pattern and the body reflects that in terms of holding of the breath and the bracing of the neck and shoulders and back or the mind is centered and the body's fluid and that's a kind of way to look after yourself if you if you get the meaning and then hips back and then the knees yep all the way to the stool and then stop and then heels yes and then bend the knees and stop and heels and bend the knees and stop there and heels good and then walk with me for a little while mm-hmm that's fine yeah and then quite quickly to the mirror and then back against the stall yeah that's fine good what's walking feeling like nothing good that's a good word right what we'll do is we're having on the table for a while now with your shoes off and just put them underneath there we'll have some table work so you lie yourself on your back you guys yes heads going to be this end and get yourself right into the center and that's perfect and I'm going to support your head on these books yes so while you're lying there having an easy time have any questions come up about what we're doing your experiences or your role that's a good you're not thinking about much that's a nice way to be is that unusual not thinking about much yes but now is it a conscious effort conscious effort to think about some about nothing isn't as valuable it defeats the purpose yes yes it's like trying to relax trying wins and relaxing tends to lose what you want is an experience is through it just to happen rather than for you to worry about having to manufacture nothing got to try to do nothing that's not going to work it's just going to busy you up even more yeah so I'm moving you around a bit like moving you on the chair but different parts of you right now I'm moving mainly your head your legs and your and as we were doing before you're requested as far as possible to let me do the moving like I was moving your head when we are doing chair work for you to let me move you and now I'm moving an arm and I'm going to take another and you just lie there doing absolutely nothing and what's happening when you do nothing when you're lying down something very interesting there's what would you say is working on you as you're lying down you have gravity yes very important idea you can't help it gravity's working on you so at the moment you're giving yourself or gravity's giving you a lesson and where does gravity take you that's pretty obvious isn't it takes you closer to the center of the earth takes you down so you might start off holding yourself against gravity most of us would not what would happen after a while of lying with gravity you would you'd be a much more aware of the influence of gravity and where it takes you you'd feel that the impact and after a while what would you feel do you think and by the way I'm just working with gravity I'm not changing the shape of your body at all ah there you go that's gravity yes and the more you tried that's right that's exactly it the more you try to relax them with effort you wouldn't get the desired result so what's your attitude towards your shoulders or anywhere else right now just lying here yeah because they're normally not on the map No so they've dropped they're more relaxed than for a very long time and are you trying to make them relaxed do you see the connection and I would say they're relaxed more than there have been for a long long time because you're not trying to make them relaxed but that's the problem it's not the solution if I can get you and help you into this state of mind when you are not trying what would you call this state of mind that you're in right now yeah the absence of try that's the mind of letting something happen right now you're letting gravity happen and you're right most of the time we interfere with letting gravity happen by trying you're trying to relax your shoulders well that doesn't really let gravity do anything but now you're not making any effort at all to make gravity work you've given up on all of that trying from here you call it relaxation it's a pretty good word relaxation you're you're surrendering to the experience of gravity rather than trying to make it happen or make it happen more and then your shoulders go exactly where they're designed to go if you think you know where they ought to go and you start mucking around around here then you get tight shoulders it's the same in the hips it's the same in the ankles it's the same in the jaw same in the forehead elbows wrists fingers feet ankles toes it's the same everywhere it's like the whole body is being informed by an attitude of mind when I'm in this position find it hard to hold my knees where it feels like effort this is like a little bit I just want to relax them in wood yes yes what when you're on your own and how is it how easy is it at the moment yes that's right so the what I'm doing with you is getting you into that sweet spot hopefully through making sure that they're not overly falling out all in so that it's the least effort possible to hold your knees up so in that for you is roundabout there yeah it doesn't matter exactly but as long as they're not falling too much out too too much in somewhere in the middle where there's not a big muscular effort to keep them from falling some people have very tight inner thighs in which case I'd probably let them fall in a little bit what you don't want is to have somebody lying down making a big effort not to not to keep the the knees up that's it let me that's fine I've got all the weight of your leg is that reasonably easy in your in your legs yeah what just happened then so you're back yeah yeah much more extended yes so the back suddenly went mmm it gave up a bit more into gravity yeah why because you weren't fighting it and when I lifted you and you weren't fighting you're still surrendering yourself to gravity the back responded and said yes there's more space there's more uprightness and there's more expansion that's exactly what happened so you get a sense that the back is more connected to the table can you feel that round about here maybe and if you are doing this lying down work on your own and it's a nice thing to do do it in an Alexander way which means you have books under your head the right amount to stop your neck getting overly squashed and your knees straight up and your feet about hip width apart and your hands either like that on you tummy or here on the table it doesn't matter on the floor and the amount of books is roughly the way it is right now so that your head isn't relaxing onto the floor like this which is a strain it's not a good way to rest or overly propped up on too many books way of squashing in the front so your neck should be approximately parallel to the ground and after a while of lying there you'll find the amount of books might change so compared to when you first got on the table that's absolutely enough for you are not taking the book away yeah what do you sense about your shoulders at the moment yes yes yes yes so it's hard just to yes yes you mean they let go when you're not looking at them yes and if you're overly interested in them you'd start to tighten them up again yes so I shouldn't ask you too many questions about them that's for sure but I will ask you just a little question for the purpose of demonstration you don't normally experience your shoulders yes it's sprung up yes well this is a different sort of thing there's no spring involved because you're in a very lovely condition of letting go of surrender to gravity and therefore even if you're aware of your shoulders right now I can assure you it won't be that experience again they won't suddenly start springing up but but you're absolutely right when you're lying down you don't have to be overly concerned with any part of the body letting go it'll all happen and the more you try to let bits and pieces work in a particular way you'll probably be adding to the tension story and right now you don't need to do anything at all so it's coming to the end of the session are there any questions that are arising that you want to share yes yeah so my advice to that is what you're experiencing is you're not trying because you've given me the responsibility good so you realize it when you're trying to get something going it doesn't work you get the opposite result which is more stuff going on than you had before so the first thing you take away from that is that you're trying doesn't do anything it only makes a mess when I'm here you think I'm the one that's responsible so you'd give up my job is to teach you to have the same give up quality if you can't do anything about it anyway and I'm not there and you can say nature's there gravity's there nothing's there and you have an attitude of letting go and surrender and the absence of the trying something but nothing so you lie there and you have an experience to actually when I don't try I let go when I don't try to fix myself it opens up so there's a bit of a paradox the the teachers role is to get you into that condition of biological faith of organic organic faith where you get out of your own way because you realize that doing is not the solution and non-doing is the answer so whether I'm here or not here I will always always say to you there's nothing you need to do in your neck back shoulders hips knees ankles do you get that I'll s yes and you'll have certain magic moments where you have an absence of trying and then really things start to work and the purpose of lessons the whole purpose of Alexander lessons is to develop and cultivate in you this capacity of non trying and letting on your own so that you recover quickly and you get into a pickle less frequently so that's my best suggestion but it takes time to cultivate this attitude because most of us have a very trying brain and fix-it brain and push the shoulders down brain and get rid of tension attitudes of doing and pushing and when you let those go when you truly let those go then the real Alexander magic happens the organic magic of things extending the flowing of easing okay so now I'm going to get you out of the line position mm-hmm and have your knees there for a while this foot I'm going to house lightly over the table what's going to happen now is you're under my guidance roll over this way and you'll be sitting on the side of the table this knee will come round and you'll come over all of a peace your shoulder your head shoulder hip knee and ankle will all will all move at the same time on to the left so roll and roll that's it and the hip and the and the leg and then I get you up from there mm-hmm wait there for a while yes and then you can help yourself off the table with your hands and then walk with me a little bit just over to the mirror and back again yes and then come back to the your stool yeah and then you can just get yourself into the chair that's it bend your knees mm-hmm sign good and just yes that's it so I'm going to leave you there that's the end of your your lesson any any big questions popping in can yes falling out or falling in if they do happen to fall out or you might find the sweet spot by yourself where you can leave them pretty upright where they're not either falling out too much and in with a minimum of tension when they fall out it might put more strain on the back so ideally you'd want them be propped up somewhere in the middle but if it's not possible then no it's not possible the most important thing is not to fight it because then all of you is going to get involved in the struggle of the knees not falling in or out so that wouldn't be very useful so as I said ideally somewhere in the middle and if not if they fall in the fall out a little bit it's no it's not the end of the world okay good thank you very very much for coming in

Channel: Anthony Kingsley

Views: 811,590

Keywords: Alexander Technique, Alexander Lessons, Alexander Teacher, Alexander Technique Video, Alexander Technique First Lesson

Id: iriXg5uZ_oU

Length: 44min 1sec (2641 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 23 2020