Lately I especially think about freeing up my neck. I kind of had an epiphany the other day while having a chair turn with a friend who is a longtime Alexander teacher. She worked on my neck and then had me put hands on her so that I could feel the difference between my normal habit and the correct way of holding my cervical spine and my head. My entire cervical spine is fused, well, C3 through C7 to be exact, due to the laminoplasty, the neurosurgery, performed on my spine. My spine had to be fused, to prevent further damage to my spinal cord. More damage and I could have wound up paralyzed. I had thought, and I had been told, that I could not elongate nor move that part of my spine. Not true! As my friend demonstrated! It was definitely a lightbulb-going-off moment for me. I now think lots about lengthening my cervical spine…and even if I just give it a gentle wish to lengthen…well I think that does the trick. I have been holding my head too forward. I must really think about lengthening my cervical spine to hold my head in a better position. Does this make sense? Forward and up, chers amis!
I was assured that my new habit will eventually replace my old habit as I continue to work on this. So, as I held my cervical spine as per my friend’s directions, I realized that it feels weird because my old, faulty habit seems natural. Now, held correctly, it feels kind of like I am tilting my head backwards. It feels like I am holding tension in my neck…but I don’t think I am!
As you can imagine, I am unduly preoccupied with thoughts of my cervical spine. If you remember, it was constant pain resulting from that laminoplasty that finally made me investigate Alexander Technique. Well, I must find my x-rays so that you can see the titanium rods and clips that made for the fusion and that keep my spinal column open. Very bionic. Très super chic! Well I will find those x-rays eventually, I promise.
Xray of cervical spine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So a few days later, I talked this over with my main teaching dude. We were discussing how the very top of my cervical spine can move, and the very bottom can. So I have to work within the parameters of what is physically possible. Indeed, the old habit of crunching down, and carrying my head forward, has to be gently replaced by a new habit of lengthening and keeping my head back. And of course when I crunch down, other parts of my body will be impacted. Tension! For me, the main thing is to lengthen that part of my spine as best as I can, so that my psychophysical self can be as healthy as possible. And we were wondering how exactly my spine was fused. This I need to find out!
same as Image:Gray 111 – Vertebral column.png but coloured (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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