Page 87 - Total War on PTSD

Technique as noticing how you think in your body. If you think, “I'm in a rush, hurry up," you will move differently than if you invite in the thought of “ease,” “connectivity,” “fluidity,” and, “I have all the time in the world.” The change in your thinking may slow you down slightly, and it will increase your efficiency and reduce your tension. You will find you achieve more with less effort. The Alexander Technique allows you to respond to your environment without the baggage of old muscular memories. You see, hear and respond to the situation as it is happening in real time, without the judgmental thoughts that are a result of past experience. Is there a person in your life you do not care for? Are you on your guard when you see them? Will you respond to their requests with caution because of your past experience when dealing with them? Are you able to hear what they are saying or are you anticipating that they will annoy you as they have in the past? What if you could interact with them without having to be on-guard, without judgment? Your response and how you feel when interacting with them may change. This is what the practice of the Alexander Technique provides. A Veteran expressed his discomfort with being touched prior to coming to Alexander lessons. “If someone bumped into me I would get angry and want to yell at them. Now, I just let it go. It’s no big deal.”
How one teaches the Alexander Technique may vary, although the principals of what we teach remain the same. Barbara and William Conable developed “Body Mapping.” It is based on the theory that if you don’t know how you are put together, you won't know how to move. Instead, you will move the way you think you are designed. For example, understanding the location of the atlanto-occipital joint where the head and neck connect and how it functions changes the way your head balances and moves on your spine. Knowing that your hip socket is near your groin and not on the outside of your upper leg allows your legs to move more freely from the joint, changing the way you walk. Experiencing that your shoulder blades do not connect to each other in your back and that the clavicle (the horizontal bone you can feel beginning below your throat and follow out towards your shoulder), connects at the sternum (the cartilage connecting your ribs in front), will grant you freedom of movement in your arms, shoulders, and fingers.
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