What is Stress and How Does It Manifest Itself?
Stress is a much talked about subject in today's world. It is a common problem for many people. But what exactly is it? And what causes it?
Most people would associate 'stress' with an anxiety of some kind; and almost everyone has a personal experience which will easily identify the catalyst for its onset. But that is about as far as it might go. What they may not be aware of is the delicate balancing mechanism of our mind/body selves which allows us to function with ease. When stress takes hold, this balance shifts imperceptibly out of gear and causes our muscles to seize up. We have to exert more energy to work physically. Our mind starts filling up with a variety of unresolved thoughts which multiply as the stress increases. There are many other consequences, including an increasing sense of short term memory loss. We find we can't retain a name, a place where we have put things and, for one reason or another, have to rely on diaries and computers to do the work for us.
When we are 'stressed' we also become less aware of our peripheral surroundings. We are so caught up with all the 'noise' of multiple unfinished thoughts going on in our minds that there is no room left for observations outside ourselves. In Alexander terms, we begin to lose touch with the ground and 'float' around in our heads.
How Can the Alexander Technique Help?
Working with the Alexander Technique as a daily part of life will, over time, provide the solution to this short term memory loss and many other disadvantages which have been caused through stress. A heightened awareness of our habits of use creates a growing understanding of the principle behind F M Alexander's discovery.
In a lesson, you will be taught lying down 'work', which becoms a discipline for the mind. Through this work we give ourselves time to allow our thoughts to slow down; to stop the 'noise' and direct our thoughts in such a way that we are consciously aware of what we wish to achieve, and why.
For those who find their memory is failing, I would say that working to Alexander's principle really does provide the means whereby memory retention becomes possible once more. It is best summed up in the words of Alexander himself when he said:
Stress is a much talked about subject in today's world. It is a common problem for many people. But what exactly is it? And what causes it?
Most people would associate 'stress' with an anxiety of some kind; and almost everyone has a personal experience which will easily identify the catalyst for its onset. But that is about as far as it might go. What they may not be aware of is the delicate balancing mechanism of our mind/body selves which allows us to function with ease. When stress takes hold, this balance shifts imperceptibly out of gear and causes our muscles to seize up. We have to exert more energy to work physically. Our mind starts filling up with a variety of unresolved thoughts which multiply as the stress increases. There are many other consequences, including an increasing sense of short term memory loss. We find we can't retain a name, a place where we have put things and, for one reason or another, have to rely on diaries and computers to do the work for us.
When we are 'stressed' we also become less aware of our peripheral surroundings. We are so caught up with all the 'noise' of multiple unfinished thoughts going on in our minds that there is no room left for observations outside ourselves. In Alexander terms, we begin to lose touch with the ground and 'float' around in our heads.
How Can the Alexander Technique Help?
Working with the Alexander Technique as a daily part of life will, over time, provide the solution to this short term memory loss and many other disadvantages which have been caused through stress. A heightened awareness of our habits of use creates a growing understanding of the principle behind F M Alexander's discovery.
In a lesson, you will be taught lying down 'work', which becoms a discipline for the mind. Through this work we give ourselves time to allow our thoughts to slow down; to stop the 'noise' and direct our thoughts in such a way that we are consciously aware of what we wish to achieve, and why.
For those who find their memory is failing, I would say that working to Alexander's principle really does provide the means whereby memory retention becomes possible once more. It is best summed up in the words of Alexander himself when he said:
Teacher of the Alexander Technique, Cambridge
CAMBRIDGE
MSTAT ARCM
The Technique enables people to become more aware of 'bad habits', which may be detrimental to physical and mental wellbeing, and gently offers a path to replace these with good use.
Website by : www.wavingmoose.com
Derrell King
You come to learn to inhibit and to direct your activity.
You learn, first, to inhibit the habitual reactionto certain classes of stimuli, and second, to direct yourself
consciously in such a way as to affect certain muscular pulls,
which processes bring about a new reaction to these stimuli.
Boiled down, it all comes to inhibiting
a particular reaction to a given stimulus.
But no one will see it that way. They will see it as getting
in and out of a chair the right way. It is nothing of the kind.
It is that a pupil decides what he will or will not consent to do.
They may teach you anatomy and physiology till
they are black in the face - you will still have this to face,
sticking to a decision against the habit of life.
2012-19 Derrell King, Teacher of the Alexander Technique, Helions Bumpstead, nr Cambridge
CAMBRIDGESHIRE / ESSEX / SUFFOLK
