Category: Balance - WALK IN BALANCE | ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE CENTER

I Stretch Every Day. Why Am I Still Tense?

6/30/2025

If you’re still tense after taking yoga classes, you're not alone. The layers of everyday tension go deep, and feeling tense again soon after your class is not because you’re inflexible, or because you don’t “get” Yoga.

The real reason is that your body is doing something in the background that you’re not yet aware of.

And this is something to celebrate because it means that the problem is NOT your body. Rather it is the way your movement system is coordinating itself. And that can be changed! Your postural system relies on patterns of balance and movement that you have repeatedly practiced over years.

For example, if you tense your shoulders each time you reach for an object, you will also tense your shoulders each time you reach down to your yoga mat. Over time, your tense shoulders will affect your neck and spine, rib cage and pelvis, and mess with their balance. These are the kinds of “hidden” patterns that dictate your posture and ability to move.

The good news are that as soon as you learn how to redirect those hidden, unconscious patterns by making them conscious with the help of a highly trained embodied posture coach, things will start to shift without needing to stretch deeper, or you putting in more effort.

It’s about doing less: less effort, less “trying hard”, less going for an end and more enjoying the process, more awareness for the present moment experience of your body. It’s about creating less tension to begin with. It’s about understanding what set’s you up for tension, the origin of tension in your mind, your emotions, your muscles, your thinking.

Physical tension is not something that can be fixed with exercises because ultimately, it's a mental issue that needs the right kind of targeted self-awareness to prevent it from happening. And as soon as you become aware you have new choices that help your body to let go on its own.

When you learn to move with less effort, a whole new space opens up inside and around you, literally and figuratively. **That’s the root of true flexibility: not how much or how deep you can stretch but the choice to use less effort.

This is a process you can learn by joining my private 1x1 DISCOVER YOUR EFFORTLESS BODY program.** If you want to learn more click here.❤️

Avoid Neck Strain, Back Pain and Posture Troubles Through Good Head Balance

12/10/2024

api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/booking/Z6ly9SE5jPeyWZMiUUEYWhat is good head balance?

Good head balance happens at your ‘top joint’ (a-o-joint), which is located at your spine high up between your ears. Moving your head from there keeps you out of most posture trouble.

But because a head follows it's owners attention, and much of it being constantly highjacked by the beeping and flashing of the devices in front of you, your head gets pushed forward and down into them.

Why is that trouble?

Because your neck and shoulder muscles are absolutely not designed to support such weight. Did you know that your head is as heavy as a bowling ball? Wow!

But here is the real issue.

Every time you push your head off your spine and down into your device, the force compounds and can feel like 35 pounds are pulling on your neck and shoulders!

12 pounds of trouble turned into 35! Ouch!

You can't sense it, but your nervous system does. And it interferes with your very fine-tuned postural system. It’s where most of our modern body discomfort, pain and excess tension originates.

It's a mental problem that has turned into a physical one.

So what can you do to free up your head on top of your spine?
Allow your nose to lead the way.

How to experiment with head balance and ease of movement based on location:
1. Sit erect on your chair.
2. Locate the lowest tip of your chin. Imagine a long paint brush being attached to your chin.
3. Paint a few figure eights with the brush in front of your face.
4. Notice how this feels to your shoulder, neck and head.
5. Now locate the tip of your nose. Imaging the brush being attached to your nose, and paint more figure eights.
6. Compare painting with your chin to painting with your nose.
7. Does it feel different? Does one take more effort to do?

You may feel it's easier to move your head if initiated at your nose. This is because the head-neck joint is located at the base of the nose in line with its tip)

Here are two extra tips:
Extra Tip #1
Put the paint brush back onto the nose and let the figure eight get smaller and smaller, until it becomes unnoticeable from the outside. Turn your head gently and look around. This is your head freely balancing on your spine.
Extra Tip #2 When looking at your device, take a few moments to sense where you're balancing your head. Where is your attention? Is your chin leading your head?

If so, allow your nose to lead the way.
I am offering complementary posture consultations click here if you want to learn more.