HOME
BENEFITS
LESSONS
WORKSHOPS
TANYA SHOOP
ANTE-NATAL
BLOG
ARTICLES
TESTIMONIALS
FAMOUS STUDENTS
LINKS
CONTACT
Articles
FAMILIES SOUTH WEST December 2003
Letter in “Your Health Stories” about experience of Alexander
Technique lessons
I used to suffer from terrible back and neck pain and headaches and started having Alexander Technique lessons to look into this. What I liked about it immediately is that it is a way of learning to look after myself in day to day life, rather than feeling dependent on someone to "fix" me during a treatment session.
My back used to get so bad that sometimes I could hardly move and had to take extremely strong painkillers. Headaches were also a pretty constant feature of my life, largely from a stressful job and from managing a home and family too. As well as working in an office, I do a lot of gardening and cooking and running around with the family at the weekends. This can be very strenuous on my back and neck.
Since having had a course of Alexander lessons, my back has changed remarkably. Recently, life has been extremely stressful, both at work and at home. Normally, this would have wreaked its consequences on my back and neck and I would have had blinding headaches but, amazingly, my back has held out really strongly. I have had some minor headaches but have been able to manage them by thinking through the ideas I have learnt in lessons and by lying down in the way I have been taught. This has helped calm and quieten my body down, both physically and emotionally.
The Alexander Technique is a very practical way of learning about myself – to become aware of how my body co-ordinates and how to release muscle tension. So I have learnt to become much more aware of things that I do on automatic pilot – sitting, walking, using the computer, gardening, cooking etc – and have become much more conscious about looking at how I can do these with a lot less effort.
I really do like the fact that the Alexander Technique is very practical and useful in my everyday life. It has really fascinated me. My teacher, Tanya Shoop, has always made lessons fresh and interesting and has helped me to become so much more observant of myself.”