For me, the greatest part of traveling is getting to see friends and family and build new friendships. Once I get where I’m going it’s great, but the getting there part sometimes isn’t so fun. Have you had to travel for a really long time in a car, plane, train or bus where you’re pretty much stuck sitting there? You want to move but you’re buckled in, you fall asleep and get a crick in your neck, or you just can’t get comfortable.
When you travel often, you have to figure out some way of getting comfortable. Here’s what I do. First and foremost I pay attention to my head and spine. As in many things in life, the conditions are not always ideal, but I want to take care of myself so I feel comfortable moving once I get out. That means thinking up to give myself enough tone that my torso doesn’t slump. It means saying yes to the directions I want my body to go in and saying no to the directions I don’t want it to go in. It’s that simple, and that profound. The Alexander Technique helps us to rediscover a healthy head-spine relationship and how to say yes to what we want and no to what we don’t.
Of course, it’s not quite as easy to keep that upward direction going when we fall asleep in the seat on the airplane, but I have actually done it on occasion!
So wherever you’re traveling soon, whether it’s on a vacation, a gig in another city, commuting to work, hiking up a hill or just to the front door to get the mail, let your attention include your head-spine relationship. Think up as you sit in your seat or move forward. See if anything changes.
I’ve most recently traveled to Buenos Aires, where I’ll be for a while, so you can join me for one-on-one or group classes there, online classes, and in my Mind-Body Freedom and Balance with Alexander Technique group on Facebook. Contact me at info@discoverease.how you’d like to learn more about my online class discount.
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