Going Back

I recently triggered tennis elbow in both my arms - an old injury from my 20s which happened when I wasn't 'listening' to my body...

So I was alone on a long car journey, which I had sensibly divided into manageable portions, with breaks etc But unfortunately my phone, which I was relying on for directions from Google Maps, died on me, and my car, for some reason, failed to charge it's battery.

Navigating through heavy motorway traffic North-East of London, I made a series of errors and ended up in London itself, LOST.

I was really frightened for my life. The traffic was heavy, relentless, unfriendly, fast - I had no clue where I was going and how to select the correct lane at any given moment. And I must have tensed my neck, back and arms quite a lot without realising.

Ah well, no surprise - it felt like a life-and-death situation after all and I'm only human. But it didn't half leave me with aching arms afterwards, so I decided from then on I would practice 'staying free' in traffic.

A couple of months later, driving along, trying to relax, I was disappointed to feel my arms still hurting. I thought to myself in frustration, 'I can't possibly free my arms any more than this!!!'

Then, I thought about my back.

I was lengthening, widening to breathe; my mid-back was free and flexible - but OMG my sacrum was pulled in and fixed, and my sitting bones were pulled up!

I immediately released my muscles - dropping the sitting bones and allowing the sacrum to free up, softening back into the seat... And guess what? The pain in my arms vanished. I was left with the feeling of 'empty arms' that my teacher, John Nicholls, had been encouraging me to learn back in March.

The more I learn about my use of myself with the Alexander Technique the more I realise it all comes BACK to the BACK :)