Posture - Alexander Technique - Tanya Shoop

October 11, 2015October 17, 2018

Perfection Schmerfection

One of the many thought-provoking pieces of advice that I was given by my Alexander Teacher, Lizzie Atkinson, was:

Perfection is a stick to beat yourself up with

If you look for a perfection, to be perfect in something, you may need to wait a lifetime or several lifetimes. So let’s give ourselves a break and allow ourselves to be less than perfect. We will never be perfectly symmetrical, have perfect posture, some people may never be completely free of their pain. But we can work towards that and learn an awful lot along the way.

A fulfilled life is about giving things a go and trying things out without having to get it right. Allowing yourself to be wrong is a great gift. There’s so much to learn from that.

My Alexander students can be surprised when they get up from a chair in a way that is unbalanced and unstable and yet I am happy about it. It’s usually because they’ve let go of a familiar habit and gone into the unknown. It might be a bit messy and it’s work in progress but we’re getting somewhere. Getting things ‘right’ can be accidental. Getting things ‘wrong’ gives us something to work with, something understood of an old habit or a new avenue of insight and thinking to explore.

I’m currently making some curtains. The old part of me – the more academic and mathematical side from my school years – wants to analyse it all, make thorough measurements and work it out beforehand. But that means that the material sits for months and years in a sewing pile.

The new part of me recognises myself as a creative person. One who can take some more casual measurements and then work things out as I go along. It’s not perfect but at least there will be a pair of curtains fairly soon to keep out the winter cold. And I’ll be learning along the way so that my next sewing project will be better and will take on board all this experience. Am I going to win the Great British Sewing Bee? No. Am I going to sell my amazing curtains and cushion covers and make a new career? No. Am I going to have fun and feel creative and satisfied as I listen to Desert Island Discs and The Life Scientific podcasts and the sewing machine whirrs along? Yes. And it’s so enjoyable and so generous for me and so much more gentle than trying to be perfect.

July 20, 2015September 12, 2022

Scoliosis and the Alexander Technique

A colleague in the States, Professor Galen Cranz, has recorded 4 short videos describing her personal experience of scoliosis which she’s had since childhood and these are well worth watching, particularly if you have scoliosis yourself or know someone who does or if you work therapeutically with people who have scoliosis.

In Video 1, Galen talks about her severe scoliosis from childhood. Not only was this obvious physically but it was also a lonely, isolating condition, particularly during her teenage years. She and her family decided against treatments such as surgery for fusion of the spine or a brace. Most treatments on offer addressed external factors and were quite held and fixed.

Swimming was the first thing that helped as the water gave support and relief, as described in the second video. She decided to put aside time for self care and swimming formed a large part of this. Galen had a lot of pain from bending over books but doctors were only able to offer pain relief medication. Advice to ‘sit up straight’ caused pain and so she practised slumping but that made the pain worse.

Moving to Berkley in 1975 led to the discovery of the Alexander Technique – video 3. This made a great impact as it was very gentle with no manipulation. She was amazed to be without pain for a while at the end of her first session [this is not the same for everyone but fortunately was the case for Galen]. She also had Alexander Technique sessions in the swimming pool.

After some time she went to New York and had ten Alexander lessons in a row – one per day. This made a major difference as, for the first time, it was more than just managing pain but it also improved her physical structure. Her spine got straighter and she could sense it. This was a major turning point.

After another lot of ten daily sessions, Galen decided to train in the Alexander Technique. This was a huge commitment. In the first term, her spine improved by 13 degrees. Another significant step forward was making friends with someone else who had scoliosis as they could share experiences.

Galen explains in her video 4 significant concepts from her Alexander Technique studies:

that the body can change
that psychological factors play a part in poor posture
the technique gives a tool and a set of standards for quality movement which are broadly applicable to all sorts of activities
that she could use all these to a new academic field – body conscious design

The fourth video sums up what has helped in the overall quest to live with scoliosis. Scoliosis is not something that goes away and so Galen Cranz cautions against anyone who says they can cure it. And she has found that a variety of different approaches have helped in her exploration, many of which are supported by her understanding and application of the AT. These include Rolfing, craniosacral osteopathy, Tomatis listening therapy, alpha brainwave training, gyrotonics and body mind centering. It’s worth listening to her discussions on these as she gives some cautionary advice.

Finally, the sequence of videos ends with her making the realistic statement that progress is not linear. Her learning has been on an upward trajectory but with significant setbacks. She has needed to find both internal and external change and feels that ordinary physical therapy misses the emotional, psychological and mental cognitive component.

Towards the end of the talk, there is a wonderful illustration of the change to her spine. It shows the first X-ray from over 20 years ago superimposed over the most recent tracing of her spine, highlighting the very significant positive change from her years of endeavours.

On a personal note, I wanted to watch these videos having worked with a number of people with scoliosis and have found this most educative. In particular, one needs to regard this condition with more than its physical manifestations. It requires a change in mind body thinking, sending messages to the musculature for longer lasting change.

My thanks to Professor Cranz for making her personal story available to the public.

April 13, 2015October 21, 2018

Chair Design – function plus form

Man sitting uncomfortably on S Chair — S Chair © Christine Ackers

It’s not ideal for our health to sit for too long. Two factors are of key importance: our posture at the chair and the type of chair itself that we sit on.

Christine Ackers writes in Connected Perspectives that:

‘… the first criterion for judging a chair must be that sitting on it does no harm.’

She illustrates in some glorious sketches how chairs that have won awards for design may be at best uncomfortable and at worst impossible to sit on. Ideally, a chair design should look good but just as importantly, if not more so, it should support a natural upright posture. Many chairs have a seat that leans backwards including design classics such as the Wassily chair:

Wassily chair — Wassily Chair © Christine Ackers

These tilt the pelvis back and curve our spines.

We need to be on our sitting bones – the two rocker-type bones at the base of our pelvis. This requires a flat seat base that has no side to side curves or front to back ones and is not backwards leaning. This, then, rules out the Panton Chair…

… and the Transat, neither of which support good postural use.

Back pain at work supposedly ‘caused by the computer’ is often determined by how we sit at the chair as well as what we sit on. A lot of money can be expended on designer office chairs when it’s learning how to sit properly that is the real key. Christine Ackers shows that it’s the marriage or sitting well as well as choosing a chair that suits function as well as form that is a happy one.

All drawings above by Joe Wauters and Jing Sheng Wang.

Connected Perspectives has a whole range of new articles with subjects that have never previously been collated, all showing the diversity of the Alexander Technique, including writings on:

cycling, skiing, sex
creativity in music and movement
utopian societies in literature
mindbody disciplines in eastern and western societies
reflections on learning

December 15, 2014May 17, 2019

Text Neck from Poor Posture

Drawing showing strain on neck if leaning forward in neck

Holding your head down to look at a mobile when texting can put a real strain on the body. A recent study states that texting can harm your health. Poor posture is one of the main causes.

Text Pain, Neck Pain

Our heads are quite heavy, around 4-5kg. This is the weight of 4-5 litres of water:

Better Posture

This is fine when the head is in balance. But tip the head forward and start multiplying those bottles of water.

Thus good posture and head balance is important. This is what the Alexander Technique is all about. Imagine a point between your ears. This is where the head neck joint is.

Forehead Forward

Next, consider that the forehead faces forward and doesn’t tilt upward. We don’t need to fix it the head into place but need to think for it to be in balance.

Phone to eyes, not head to phone

Now let’s bring the phone into the picture. Instead of tilting the head down, we can bring the phone upwards towards the eyes. This leaves the head neck balance alone and takes the strain off the neck, back and shoulders.

Alexander Technique Lessons

Any Alexander Technique practitioner can help you learn the skill of ‘mind talking to muscle’. We help you to understand what natural body use is and how to achieve it for yourself. We have a very gentle touch which guides the body how to let go more, even when it may have spent years, or even decades, holding on for dear life.

Call now to book an appointment and start taking care of your spine.

July 10, 2014October 21, 2018

Creative Writing, Body Mindfulness and Calm

A new discovery has been the use of creative writing to help observe my body and its posture (or ‘use’). I recently went on a great workshop called Creative Writing and Yoga with Philip Cowell. Normally I have a complete writing block, hence the lack of regular posts on my blog, and this causes me some angst. But the writing workshop has freed things up a lot.

Every day, I now write four pages in a notebook. These are called Morning Pages – possibly familiar to people who have read The Artist’s Way. It’s stream of consciousness writing with no rules and no need for internal editing. It has given me a sense of calm as it’s essentially an opportunity for mindfulness by decluttering one’s thoughts.

Yesterday, I was writing away and my thoughts were drawn to my body – how I was sitting and writing. I started documenting this. I noticed that I was sat slightly off the chair as I hadn’t moved some things under the table and so was sitting around these. My head was resting in my left hand. Bit by bit, I wrote these observations down, with a writer’s eye. It was useful not to change anything immediately so that I could explore the details.

Then I put my ‘Alexander hat’ on. And I shifted the things from under the table and brought both feet on the floor. I relaxed my right shoulder, thought up through my spine and head and I let my left hand softly help keep the pages of my book open. Much more comfortable.

It has been a revelation to use writing to bring a greater body awareness.

One exercise in the Creative Writing for Yoga workshop happened after we’d done some gentle yoga movements. We then had to write a letter to a part of our body. A few people read their pieces out. They were so different. Some were funny, others moving, all were observing things from a more unusual perspective. Someone wrote to their thumb, another to their belly, I corresponded with my left hip.

So these are my offerings:

Write Morning Pages – 3 or 4 pages, any time of day, anything that’s in your mind
If you are aware of your body as you write, note it down in detail. Tensions and all. Then become more thoughtful and note that down. This doesn’t have to be in your Morning Pages.
Do some gentle movements and then write a short letter to part of your body