Active rest:

• Influences
  • Muscles and joints – conscious control/releasing/thinking reduces unnecessary/habitual tension patterns
  • Digestion – the relaxation influence on nerves normalises the activity of the gut and gives an opportunity for the abdominal muscles to release and provide space for gut
  • Breathing

• Can increase energy levels and ease, and alleviate pain and discomfort by allowing:
  • complete rest of the body
  • a decrease in muscular effort and excess tension
  • fluid to be imbibed (absorbed) into intervertebral discs

• Facilitates heightened self-awareness, specifically:
  • Improves kinaesthetic awareness (awareness of the position of your body in space) as a result of giving directions (invitations to your body to release)
  • Facilitates awareness of the relationship between the head, neck and back
    • Facilitates awareness of how body and mind are not separate
    • Provides an opportunity to notice and reduce unhelpful habitual thought patterns/mental chatter via the use of stop and the mindful approach of using conscious thought (i.e. directions) to release excess tension

• Facilitates/speeds up your learning process of The Alexander Technique via improved kinaesthetic awareness

• Helps you to re-train your thinking to gain conscious control of how you use yourself by providing an opportunity for quiet self-observation

• Can be an effective stress management tool and can induce calm (before and after a stressful event) as it provides a stop and a release