#exercise
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I like the spread of how the Alexander Technique works
There’s a kind of Spiritual side to it:
the joy of moving my body that I had not noticed before
and thinking ‘that’s quite good’.
This is the 7th interview in a series of interviews I carried out with people who have had Alexander Technique lessons. Here are Seb’s answers to a simple set of questions I asked him about his experiences.
What drew you to the Alexander Technique (AT)?
I found out about the Alexander Technique via an acquaintance and following our discussion decided to try it for migraine. I have now had a year of lessons and think I am just scratching the surface of the technique.
What impact has doing AT had?
On daily activities:
Seb has begun to question and to notice things that he previously had not. Now, he says things to himself like: Why is my face is so tense? Why am I holding my shaver so tight when shaving? I can do it with less effort, I can do it differently.
Instead of standing in a queue for tea at work and distracting myself with thoughts/getting irritated that the queue is so long/looking at mobile, I notice standing. I “play around with it.”
Conference calls at work often got me irritated. I now realise I can sit back and notice other things, not just the irritation about the call but what is around me, so I don’t get sucked in.
I no longer feel, when I wake up in the night, that I have got to get up and read. I used to. Now I can enjoy just laying down and noticing things about laying down.
There is a joy in noticing.
It’s not like a huge “wow” but rather like noticing a robin in the garden.
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Fish out of water
Entrance swipe card poised in my hand, dressed in perfunctory work out gear, terrified, heart thumping, on the edge of the abyss…I swiped! It didn’t work! Failed at the first hurdle. Panic now rising because I couldn’t even get through the door. If that was difficult then how would I manage whatever awaited me in the gym?
I did get in when someone else came out. I felt helpless, floundering like a fish out of water and yet gyms, just like this one, had been my working environment (my pond) for many years as a Physiotherapist. On this day, I was attending the gym (and still am attending regularly) because I had developed a persistent problem with my right knee and had requested an “exercise on prescription” course which my GP had agreed to.
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