November/December 2017

LIVING THE
ALEXANDER
WAY OF LIFE
by Liz Jeffries
find us on:
“Jingle bells, jingle bells….jingle all the way…”
A Morris kind of Christmas!
I seem to remember seeing
the first Christmas items and
catalogues surfacing around
the end of September. Some
people love it and others find
it very stressful for various
reasons. If you are one of the
ones with a more stressful
outlook, perhaps we can look at
Christmas rather like any other
stressful situation that comes
along.
I am a member of Mad Jacks
Morris. You may well have
seen us dancing out around
Hastings, particularly at Jackin-the
Green. I am normally
quite a self-contained person,
happy to go with the flow, but
I have now been charged with
steering our club to a higher
profile, recruiting more dancers
and generally having a bigger
profile myself. I have done
this kind of thing before in a
corporate life, but over the last
twenty years or so I have got
used to being in the background
more. So this could have been
a little overwhelming for me.
However, once I got over the
shock I realised that I actually
had a choice as to how I dealt
with this. In fact, I thought
it through in the same way I
did with my lower back pain
many years ago! Alexander’s
discoveries with movement
were based on stopping the
stimulus to move in a habitual
way (which may be the cause of
our pain) and choosing to move
in a different, more balanced,
way for the body (thereby
helping to alleviate the pain). In
other words, we can choose our
responses to situations rather
than behaving as we always
do out of habit. So instead of
getting stressed I chose to stop
and remember my ‘past life’
with more of a ‘can do’ attitude.
I urge you to try it next time
stress rears its head. Talking
of heads, if your Christmas
requires a turkey weighing
around 6 kg (c12lb) you will
be cooking approximately
the weight of your head!!
Alexander’s work is centred
around how the head influences
spinal movement and which, in
turn, can prevent vocal strain,
can help with management
of pain, poise, balance and
freedom of movement.
By the way, Mad Jacks Morris
will, as usual, be dancing out
on Winkle Island on Boxing Day,
at 12.30 so do come and chat
to us. We are always looking
for new dancers and musicians.
If you like dancing, drinking,
music, being sociable, and
you’re looking for a fun way to
keep fit (whilst getting rid of the
Christmas excesses!) this may
be for you!
I wish you a very happy festive
time
The Alexander Technique is
a life changing skill which
can relieve tension and
painful muscular/skeletal
conditions. Please see www.
alexandertechniquehastings.
co.uk for info on individual
and group sessions or mail@
lizjeffries.co.uk 01424
465838/07929 725156
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