Head shoulders to your ears, to your ears

Determined to safeguard some time for myself, I signed up for an Alexander class. the Alexander Technique is named after Frederick Matthias Alexander, who in the 1800's developed it after he developed breathing problems and started going hoarse while acting on stage. I was first introduced to Alexander work in college where it was primarily used to create a neutral body that is being used efficiently in order to create characters. 


After having baby #1, I ended up with a severely herniated disk (an 11.5mm herniated disk to be precise- but more on that and the power of accupuncture later) and remember a fellow mom saying she was having back issues and worked with someone on Alexander and how much it helped. So, when I saw a listing in the local adult education bulletin, I took it as a sign and a great opportunity to put my money where my mouth (or back) is! I signed up for 2 two hour classes. 


It is amazing, once you become aware (or many times re-aware) of your body and tension, how much of the day we walk around with our shoulders to our ears. Some of the principles of Alexander work are to connect with our primary pattern, which is the layer of muscles we use to move until around age four.  After four, we start developing various habits and engaging layers of muscle particularly around the neck, scapula, and hips that are not needed to move and when engaged actually lead to fatigue and injury. By connecting to the axis of your spine ( think of the spot inside your facebetween your ears and behind your nose) and imagining it has a string and that your head is a helium balloon floating upward and then as a second point to ALLOW your shoulders to release one at a time (usually a first and second wave of release) while floating your head- this engages the deepest and only muscles necessary to hold our heads up. I have been working simply on this since my first class three weeks ago- checking in throughout the day - especially when doing activities such as nursing the baby or holding the baby or burping the baby (detect a pattern here) , particularly when she is really fussing (the guru called activities such as these "charged" activities). It is amazing how many times I could literally sing "head, shoulders to my ears to my ears"- my shoulders and neck are so tense. Many times I can feel a release down my whole back.  What a relief it is to work with those two steps in the hopes that they will become second nature someday!