A breath of fresh air….
We all have patterns of anxiety. There are times when we are unsure of ourselves, we don’t know how to respond to the situation, perhaps when we feel vulnerable, insecure, afraid – and this manifests in the body. For instance there might be places in the spine where we constantly shorten/contract, and usually this is so habitual we don’t notice it – it becomes a pattern. Or it could be a holding pattern in the complex structure of the shoulders. At the same time we tend to hold our breath.
We also might take on all sorts of physical behaviors as a way to avoid anxiety – the ‘stiff upper lip’ syndrome, pull the shoulders back, brace yourself to face the world kind of posture, which can in the long term cause problems also.
The wonder about Feldenkrais and such practices, is that as we see that we can let go of these unnecessary tensions, we begin to feel lighter in ourselves – freer, more able to think more clearly, more positive, and more secure.