Can Exercise Help You Let Go of Tension?

Yes and No.
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Yes, exercising can provide a great release from the demands of a stressful day. After a good workout or yoga session, you’re likely to feel recharged, more relaxed, and mentally refreshed. Regular physical exercise builds strength, resilience, and can be a powerful mental reset. When we exercise, we get a moment to clear the mind, which sometimes allows us to recognize certain beliefs and thought patterns that are lodged in mind and emotions and hold tension in our muscles. But exercise alone doesn’t reach the deeper root causes of tension.
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Where Exercise Falls Short

The challenges of modern life include stressors that are often long-term, mental, and deeply ingrained. They can’t be resolved by simply “burning off steam” at the gym. These mental stressors, such as unhelpful attitudes or beliefs, tend to show up physically in our bodies, manifesting as tension. Exercise may momentarily overpower these tensions, but as soon as you’re back in your usual routine, they come right back. This cycle – mental tension leading to physical tension, which in turn reinforces mental tension – can’t be truly disrupted with exercise alone. Instead, it needs an approach that works on a mental and emotional level to bring awareness to these patterns.

That’s where the Alexander Technique comes in. By developing awareness of habitual attitudes, thoughts, and physical reactions, we can begin to let go of the ones that produce chronic tension in both the mind and muscles. It’s about breaking the cycle by identifying those ingrained reactions and making conscious changes that lessen tension at its source.

An Overlooked Cause of Daily Tension

There’s another major root cause of stress that many people aren’t aware of: how we use our bodies in everyday actions. Your body’s tension patterns are often tied to how you sit, stand, walk, reach, and bend. These fundamental movement patterns are so habitual we don’t realize they’re creating strain. For example, modern furniture, extended hours at a desk, or computer-focused work all encourage certain postural habits that can gradually increase tension throughout the body.

In the Alexander Technique, we look at this “use of self” with a fresh perspective. By learning to move with greater ease and awareness, you’re not just managing stress in the moment but actually reducing the underlying physical patterns that contribute to it in the long run. This isn’t about avoiding exercise but rather supplementing it with an understanding of how our movement habits can either foster relaxation or perpetuate strain. In essence, it’s about moving with purpose and ease – an approach that benefits not only the body but also the mind.