“My shoulders are too narrow.”
“My shoulders are too broad.”
“I feel like I’m carrying the world on my shoulders!”
“No matter how many times I shrug and release my shoulders, they never seem to relax!”

A couple of weeks ago I led a teaser workshop for my upcoming four-class series “End Chronic Shoulder Tension Forever.” Together we explored the top three totally wrong ideas most people have about their shoulders:

NUMBER ONE WRONG IDEA: MY SHOULDERS SHOULD BE WIDER
This idea makes people try to widen across the front of their chest, which means that muscles in the front of their shoulder joint are being overstretched and weakened, often resulting in shoulder joint injuries. The muscles in the back between their shoulder blades then become hyper-tonic, no longer able to let go and release the shoulder blades away from one another. This can also cause difficulty breathing freely because your ribs can’t move well, and problems with balance because when your shoulder blades are held rigid, they can’t slide around in the back as they are designed to do, aiding delicate shifts in balance. Postural mal-coordination then gets held throughout your musculature all the way down to the soles of your feet.

NUMBER TWO WRONG IDEA: MY SHOULDER BLADES SHOULD BE LOWER
This idea makes people push their shoulders down and away from the neck and head. This also causes compression of the entire spine and thorax, difficulty breathing because of immobility in the sternum and ribcage, and also affects balance on down through the whole body.

NUMBER THREE WRONG IDEA: MY SHOULDERS CARRY MY HEAD AROUND
Number three is usually variable or highly individual and particular to one person. In this past workshop, it was the idea that our shoulders carry us, and our head, around. It’s very easy to disprove this one, because all you need to do is look at the incredible structure of the human body to see that the shoulder girdle (the collar bones, shoulder blades, arms and hands) is beautifully draped over the ribs. All 24 ribs are supported by the spine so that they can move delicately with each breath, causing a sliding of the shoulder girdle as it easily rides this wave of motion.

The weight of the head is also carried through the spine, passing over the arch of the sacrum, across the pelvis and down through the big sturdy leg bones through the feet into the earth. So as your feet press against the earth, and that spring passes up through your legs, hips, and spine, it supports your shoulders and head! Not the other way around.

I think what happens is that we loose our active relationship to the earth cause we sit all the time. Our legs get kind of deadened and we don’t feel that springy push against the earth traveling up through our spinal column.

Do you wonder if some of your shoulder tension is caused by wrong ideas? My next workshop is for you if:

– you are ready to let go of having sore, tight shoulders all the time
– you are ready to let go of limiting ideas about what you are supposed to look like and how you are supposed to “be”
– you want to feel energized and supported in your body all throughout your day
– you want a practical, provable, and innovative way of making yourself feel better

To experience the amazing motion of your shoulder girdle, check out my latest video.

Information about the upcoming workshop is below!

Peace and love,

Clare

WAYS TO CONNECT:

////// END CHRONIC SHOULDER TENSION FOREVER: WORKSHOP SERIES
Saturdays, March 11, 18, 25, April 1, 2017, 12:30 – 2pm, $160
Go here to register and see more details.
////// FLOWER POWER SESSIONS:
Do you, or someone you know, want relief from chronic shoulder, neck, back, or jaw tension and pain without drugs or surgery? Bring me a flower (yes, really, just one beautiful flower!), and I’ll give you 30 minutes of time in which to discover your innate ability to free yourself from chronic patterns of tension and pain.

Click here to book your session.

PRIVATE LESSONS //////
– 1 hour 15 minute first consultation
– 1 lesson at a time, no commitment needed
– 5 lesson package
– 10 lesson package
– 20 lesson package

Check out this months video about sensing and opening the connection between your spine and your arms:

What a month it’s been! Upsetting, thrilling, exhausting. I feel so vulnerable, I need so much rest, I despair of being able to keep up with the flow of information and activity. I know I’m not alone.

If you have been feeling the same way, there’s good news! Vulnerability is sexy now, thanks to Brene Brown! In her Manifesto of the Broken Hearted she talks about how hard but important it is to show up “just as you are” for your life. Sarcasm is one of my worst coping mechanisms but I give myself permission to say: NO *#^$ KIDDING!!!!

To quote Brene: “We are all called to be brave with our lives and answering that call means choosing courage over comfort, choosing what’s right over what’s easy, practicing our values rather than professing them and leaning into our vulnerability.”

Paradoxically, I think taking a break is the most courageous action sometimes. Until I discovered the Alexander Technique, I was not showing up. I thought I was, but I wasn’t. I was showing up and shutting down! I needed to learn how to feel myself again, and that meant I had to face the vast unknown, the vast “unfelt.”  I needed a break from environments where I was being told what to think, feel, and do (dance training, politics, my family of origin) and instead learn the tools to find out for myself: what do I really think? What do I really feel? This took way more courage than losing myself in endless exhausting activity, which had been my way of coping for years. The Alexander Technique opened the door for me into a wonderful world of integrated embodiment. A transformation occurred, little manageable bits at a time, so that now I can, in fact, really show up as I am. And who I am is always changing! It’s wonderful, and sometimes very vulnerable and scary. If I start to feel shut down again, I know what to do: take a break, get clarity, and then re-engage. There is a unity to my life and my work that makes my actions more powerful. I hope.

Having the courage to show up as vulnerable means admitting limits. We all live through, not in spite of, our bodies. Give yourself a break. Rest. You will bounce back even stronger if you take one, and that’s going to help everyone around you. You might be surprised at your own resilience!

If you want to get a taste of the transformational work I do, see the offerings on my workshops page or my private lessons page. I’ve moved the Introductory End Shoulder Tension Forever Workshop forward into February, since January was so overwhelming for everyone. Bring or refer a friend and get a 50% discount!

Lots of love,
Clare

Are you looking for long-term solutions chronic shoulder tension and back pain? Do you want more than drugs and surgery? Maybe you feel that those kind of interventions are too extreme for your situation, but no one has offered an alternative? To find out more about what the Alexander Technique can do for you, go here. Book a “Tension Free for a Flower” session!

When I get overwhelmed, as I’ve been by the results of the past election, I take refuge in distraction. Distraction, over the long haul, ends up manifesting in my body as chronic tension. It’s a state of shut-down and disassociation.

I know that rest, positivity, and yes, even pleasure, are what I really need to reset my system, but if everyone around me is freaking out, it’s natural to freak out too. I’ve finally reached such a state of outrage, however, that I’m more determined than ever to keep my focus on freedom and rainbows and positivity. I simply will not let fear mongers have their way with my spirit.

In November, pre-election, I wrote about feeling good. At the time, I thought it was just about getting through the worst of it until after Trump lost…but now it’s a lot longer haul isn’t it? Dear reader, I’m making assumptions about you. If you are feeling happy about the results of the election, I truly hope you won’t take offense, but read on just to find out about someone who feels differently than you do. I ask myself, Is it still OK for me to choose ease, to feel good?

It’s a profound decision to say “yes, especially now.” I’m even more thankful for the work I get to share, the wonderful colleagues I work with, (special thanks to Michaela Hauser-Wagner and all the Alexander Teachers who came to my workshop in CT!!) and all my students who dare to dream of something better for themselves and the world.

The state that I enter when I’m using the Alexander Technique can be challenging, though, because it opens us up to our full range of sensations and emotions. Students in my open group class at Movement Research were crying, fearful, and worried about the future of the arts in America. Some of them are young people, visitors here from other countries. They come here to share their dreams and their visions for the future. Our new president wants to shut their voices out, and they know it. He wants us to be afraid of one another. Nothing that he says, to me, is forward thinking, generous, spacious, or positive.

That’s why this month’s video is about opening your throat! If we let our throat open, air and sustenance come in, and resonant, powerful sound comes out. It feels bad to be so frightened that you think you must hold feelings and sound inside. Pulling your face inwards compresses the part of our body that opens, eats, speaks, and shouts! Finding the support you need to step out of fear is a lifelong project. I have found that an open throat is key to conquering chronic shoulder tension, and the fear of falling that comes along with it. It’s a simple, basic state of openness that can support you when you need it the most. It’s the central principle of the Alexander Technique.

An open throat can also sing songs of freedom, hope, and rainbows. Here’s a good one that I learned over the holiday. It’s so good that it will drown out all the negativity around you! Once you’ve heard it you will never be able to get it out of your head, either.

Want some support for staying positive in – even because of – dark times? Give me a call. I wish my phone number was 1-800-Rainbows!