The Captain's chair

Chair in an Ambleside, Lake District shop. 

M'reen

Looking at the captain’s chair you realise that it is specifically designed for long haul comfort

and so it needs to be approached in the correct way as you don’t want the crew

to think that you don’t know how to look after your spine and body

and so diminish your mental productivity and physical ability over time.

The number of videos below indicated how much respect I have for The Alexander Technique

and the value of sitting and rising from your chair or toilet in a way that supports your body

both now and for later years. I am as guilty as many people of ‘not doing’

so I’ve written out how I was taught to sit and rise from a chair.

Back up to the chair so that your calves are touching the edge.

Bring your knees and shoulders forward and this will take you down to the seat.

Sit on the two sticky out bones at the front of your pelvic girdle with your feet flat on the floor.

So you are not sitting on your tail bone and your spine is not curved back and down.

In fact as you rest on those two knobs you bring your spine back with your shoulders over your hips
and imagine that a puppeteer pulls a string from your top knot straightening out your spine, 

neck and head and you will probably experience your chin lifting.

To rise from a chair, shuffle to the front of the seat and put your feet back under the chair

so that you are resting on your toes. Lean back and then forward tipping your shoulders and head

over your knees allowing the momentum to raise your bum of the chair and for you to gracefully uncurl and then imagine that puppeteer pulling you into that lovely restful posture.

Your mission is to practice sitting down at your desk correctly and rising in the best mechanical way 

for your body and if you have a bad back you will soon notice a difference. 

You may need to raise your computer monitor to achieve this posture naturally. 

I found that if my eyes were at a level of 1/3 down the screen then my posture became automatic

and also to arrange your monitor and keyboard so that you are not leaning to one side.

Or check out the video on how to sit when you write. 

You will find that if you set your timer for half an hour pings and rise from your seat correctly and oxygenate 

your body not only will your body be healthier but you will get through your working day feeling more refreshed.

Not only will you not lose concentration but your work productivity will rise.

You may find these youtube videos to be of advantage, particularly the last one which,

while it covers writing can be transferred to using a lap top.

Alexander Technique Squatting and Sitting

The purpose of this video first and foremost is how to sit and squat, (safely, easily and mindfully) from standing to sitting and into a full squat. This movement is a position of mechanical advantage, in other words the body is used in accordance with its design, the muscles, bones and joints are used in a more balanced and integrated way, giving structural support, balance and integrity.

Also giving the torso maximum length and release and avoiding stress and compression of the torso.

http://youtu.be/re-2dLk0HGU             5.29 minutes

……………………………………..

How To Sit In A Chair Without Pain - Learn Alexander Technique!

Luke Ford talks about the best types of chairs and best approaches to sitting in a chair.
And the worst ways to sit in a chair.

http://youtu.be/Z6ZX7T85Q6w   3.46 minutes

Sitting on an ‘office swivel chair’ reading books, get up and move every ½ hr

………………………………………

Sitting Comfortably Erect

How to sit comfortably without pain. Learn how to sit at the computer, at a desk, table, in a car without slumping or stiffening using natural good posture. Learn what positions cause stiffness

and pain and how to release and relax with effortless upright energy. 

http://youtu.be/uz3PTcDYb4U

As a result of this video I raised my desktop monitor so that my eyes are about 1/3 down this page and not the top of the plastic surround. This was my decision and not a recommendation.

…………………………………………………………..

Alexander Technique with Marjorie Barstow - Sitting

Here Marjorie works with a student, showing her how to sit without scrunching her body,

http://youtu.be/S0Mq3ItAspw   2.16 minutes

……………………………………………………………………

Alexander Technique with Marjorie Barstow - Writing

Marjorie was in her 90s and suffering from osteoporosis.

The student kept commenting on how he was able to breathe.
http://youtu.be/zfZjE5hFq0o   3.45 minutes

Phobic or Fearful?

Phobic or fearful ?

The biology:            The body’s chemical response is, incrementally, the same for 

                                      an inappropriate phobia as it is an appropriate fear.

Physical trigger.      Look sad and drop your shoulders and your sad body chemicals will

                                       respond appropriately.

Emotional trigger.  See/think of your fear and your chemicals will race you to anxiety

                                       or panic.

Physical trigger.      Whistle, laugh, and your happy chemicals can’t help but respond.

Emotional trigger.  Decide you can do it – but not like it.

                                       As you modify the emotions so you modify the physical reactions.

1.Physical trigger.  See your feared object, STOP, alter the emotion surrounding the fear

                                      or modify the physical response to modify the emotions.

2.Simple Fear         is rather akin to Simple Anxiety, it revolves around a temporary situation.

                                     Think of a child learning to use an escalator, this is seen as a reasonable

                                     fear/anxiety given the circumstances.

3. There are many things I prefer not to do or to experience, but if I had to do them,             

    then I would and with practice I would become accustomed to those experiences.                     

    I would feel a decreasing level of fear and anxiety until I had mastery/control or familiarity

    with the experience. This is called de-sensitisation (Behaviourism) it is easier in trance.

These three different words (mastery, control, familiarity) represent a different emotional response 

to the situation, as it was an emotional response that was causing the hesitation or fear in the first instance. Think of learning to drive a car; as you become more familiar with driving 

so you become more confident.

If the fear of escalators or driving continues then I may choose to work with the underlying emotional reasons and release the need or cause of that fear.         

The Behaviourists call ‘jumping in at the deep end’ of your fear ‘flooding’ and they call ‘getting used to it’ as ‘extinguishing’, they discount emotional responses. I prefer to use hypnotherapy and Emotrance with, maybe, NLP to assist you to find your own resources.

A Controlling Habit may be, or may become, a Phobia that may lead to Panic, or to an obsessive –compulsive reaction. This is something that is seen as inappropriate behaviour for the current circumstances, not only by the person themselves but also by others.

It is the fear of a fear - not of an actual danger. One is not afraid of the spider but of what the spider represents to you. There is a difference in being afraid (aware of the potential) when you see 

an actual spider and being on continual red alert for spiders. 

The phobia has become something of a compulsive habit.

 e.g. FLYING

Consciously

A 1985 CBS News poll found that 20% of callers were unable to fly and a further 24% 

were a little anxious. This means that 80% were able to fly and 74% were not anxious,

don’t those big figures now seem better. So, statistics don’t make you feel any easier,

the conscious mind may accept them but the subconscious mind does not.

I offer skills that will enable you to physically relax emotionally relax and mentally relax

and this will result in keeping your panic/phobic/fearful/stress chemicals in check as fear 

and relaxation are at the opposite ends of the scale. We then work on the underlying reasons.

First recognise and accept the signs of anxiety, stress, and/or fear as normal for you

at this time. You may recognise these feelings in other areas of your life and note how you successfully use the stress busting techniques I offer. You are now becoming in control

until you reach the stage of letting go of your fear and the need for these skills, all in your own time and in your own way. This may be achieved through understanding how your fear starts, 

how it builds and what you can do about it on a conscious level so leading to control.

Or your fear may become a thing of the past by simply flowing it all away in Emotrance 

or using some other energy intervention without examining the fear or even voicing it out loud.

As soon as you become aware of the first signs of stress, you can defuse it either consciously by using one of the stress busting skills given, or through our trance work together, or you may simply tell yourself to relax or give yourself a signal to relax. Sounds easy doesn’t it ?

Anything is easy once you know how and have practised the skill or recognised and accepted 

the experience. In any debate between the conscious and subconscious mind

the subconscious ALWAYS wins, that is why working in trance is so effective,

as we re-tape the memories or associations. Whatever happened, happened,

but your response to that event can change.

Emotionally

Sometimes a simple phobia that has been holding you up for years can be vanquished

in one session. Why and how the fear began and what made it grow may be tackles in ways which 

suit you so that e.g. flying may become just one of those things you do.

It may even rate the same stress level as travelling by car or train as long as the ‘flying’ fear 

has not spilled into these areas. (Just the travelling I mean, not the whole experience of being late etc.)

If you feel it is necessary, we can work on the time factor of flying, you can slow things down or speed them up, just think how long a boring visit takes and how time zips by

when you’re having fun. Let’s zip the time on that transatlantic flight.

But this should not be necessary once we’ve sorted out the cause, symptom and response.

Our last session could include a virtual reality flight, as you take your flight from first suggestion 

to unpacking when you get home. Your mind experiences this as real,

so you recognise this as a successful trip.

We could work on understanding the source of your fear if this is appropriate

and this can be done in a variety of ways.

You may wish to deal with the situation directly or indirectly the choice is always yours.

Should you choose to work with the incident that you think started your fear you may find that 

this might not be the original event; one client discovered a pre-school trauma

that he had blanked from memory. His parents verified this event.

One way to work is to work on a more positive perception of the incident or to re-record

the video/memory of the event. This is re-programming or re-framing of your understanding of the event and therefore your response to future events.

We could work on the emotions surrounding flying.

We could work on experiencing the different aspects of flying in a positive manner.

It is probable that we will touch on all the above areas in some way.

We could work with your dreams or if there is a Past Life reason

– which would be worked on as above.

It can be a struggle sometimes, but you are struggling with your chosen therapist

and that makes all the difference.

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.ourmindminds.blogspot.com               this takes advantage of the experience and expertise of others. 

www.turbochargedreading.blogspot.com      describes the steps to reading in the way your mind prefers.

www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com         just for fun.

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”

Kaa, The Jungle Book snake and Hypnotherapy

When you think of hypnosis do you think of Kaa?

Unfortunately I do not know the name of the author.

When you think of hypnosis do you think of Kaa, the snake from the Jungle Book

using those spiralling eyes to lure the unsuspecting Mowgli, or do you think of Paul McKenna

apparently manipulating volunteers from his audience to provide entertainment for the rest of us?

Well, hypnotherapy is nothing like that, but those are often questions that I’m asked.

Over the years the media has sensationalise hypnosis.  Stage hypnosis has the purpose

of entertaining. Hypnotherapy has the purpose of helping you help yourself; the ‘hypnosis’ needs

the addition of ‘therapy’ to provide very real therapeutic value, especially when applied

to our health and state of mind.

Most of us are aware of the harm caused by stress and anxiety, but how do we normally

go about treating it? For headaches and migraines we get painkillers, for nerve rashes

and skin disorders we get cream, and for depression and nervous tension we get tranquillisers. 

These are all outside things that are being used to affect an inside (emotional energy) concern. Conventional medicine is primarily concerned with treating the symptoms,

the effects of stress and anxiety, without really attempting to alleviate the causes.

Therefore, the problem continues to exist. In trance we work with the cause.

It is rarely possible to simply remove the outside source of stress –

such as work, relationship, family troubles etc. – so what can we do is on the inside.

To begin with we must acknowledge that at least part of the problem may come from within

our own minds. It is not the particular event that is important, but it is how we react to it

that really matters, what is stressful to one person may be the norm or even exciting to another; 

think of a fairground ride.

But why should this be so? Obviously this has much to do with individual personality

but it goes much further than that when we begin to experience depressions or guilt feelings,

or develop obsessive behaviour, a phobic reaction or even physical illness.

In such cases, and in many others, these problems come from within us but we feel that

we have no control of the problem  – it is like a different part of us takes over.

Is it possible to change the habit of a lifetime? Is it possible to improve your health,

vitality and well being?

The answer is most definitely “yes”, and one very effective way is Hypnotherapy

 – a personal therapy using Hypnosis.

For some the word ‘hypnosis’ often conjures up images of mind control

and of people put into some sort of comatose state, actually this is total nonsense.

Hypnosis is a very natural state of relaxation and there is absolutely no question of any mind control whatsoever. In fact, after their first experience of hypnotherapy, the majority of people say things like “well, that was all very nice but I didn’t actually feel hypnotised,

I could have opened my eyes at any time”.  And so you can.

Hypnotherapists use only “Conscious awareness Hypnosis” and there is no need for any form 

of deep trance state, so that clients are usually aware of what is going on, yet are able to experience

an unparalleled feeling of relaxation and calmness. My room has just the normal surrounding noises and there is a lovely relaxing atmosphere with not a swinging watch in sight!

Most of us go through life either doing something that we don’t want to do (e.g.:  smoking,

having panic attacks, obsessively checking things) or not doing something that we want

to do (e.g.: form a loving relationship, feel self confident or be able to say “no” when we want to). Many of these behaviour patterns originate from negative attitudes picked up during childhood; 

these continue to influence us into adult life at a level that we are not consciously aware of.

Most of us just accept these effects (violent outbursts, guilt feelings, personal problems, illness etc.) 

as being normal, “that’s the way I am”, and so forth, but there is absolutely no reason

why one person should have to suffer such emotional strains when others do not.

The same applies to many illnesses. We just seem to accept that we are ill and totally rely

on our doctors for a cure – or sometimes accept the ultimate with amazing complacency,

without ever considering that we may have some control over the situation.

But it is possible to learn to be in control of your mind, your body and your emotions.

It is our perception of ourselves that is at fault. If, through hypnosis, we can change our view

of ourselves then we can bring about change and even sometimes a cure.

When a client first comes to see me I try to remember to tell them that by the end of the therapy 

they may become virtually unaware they ever had a problem in the first place

and many look at me in disbelief, yet it can be a very moving experience at a later stage

to see those same clients releasing their anxiety and for the first time in many years,

being truly free from negative emotions, and symptoms that those repressed emotions caused.

But aside from smoking and all the emotional/personal problems,

hypnosis has many other applications, one in particular being in the medical world.

For hundreds of years hypnosis has been used as an anaesthetic to “switch off pain” during operations, yet recent publicity surrounding the gentleman who used hypnosis during his vasectomy presented it as a somewhat new discovery! There is an increasing amount of evidence to suggest that 

if you mentally prepare yourself for an operation there is less shock to your body so that

you are able to speed your own recovery. The same applies in drug treatment, where self-hypnosis 

and visualisation have shown to reduce the side effects from chemotherapy, for example.

There are even countless cases where diseases such as cancer and arthritis have responded

to self-hypnosis visualisations, when used as part of the healing process.

It is not only people with problems that can benefit from hypnosis, for it can be applied to enhance existing personal qualities such as sales or sport performance, or just generally reduce stress

and aid relaxation. Whatever the situation from relieving driving test nerves or child bed-wetting, 
to getting rid of phobias – the same principals apply, whereby we are using the potential

of our imagination to communicate with our subconscious, emotional mind.

Hypnotherapy is probably the kindest, quickest and most gentle form of personal therapy available. 

It is a totally natural, totally safe method of treatment and, unlike many drugs based therapies

it has no unpleasant side effects and is suitable for just about anybody.

It has often been said that, if hypnosis could be bottled and sold off the shelf at your local chemist,

it would be hailed as the most wonderful potion this world has ever known

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.ourmindminds.blogspot.com               this takes advantage of the experience and expertise of others. 

www.turbochargedreading.blogspot.com      describes the steps to reading in the way your mind prefers.

www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com         just for fun.

The Saying goodbye exercise.

Raindrop in Heron Stream,  Wendover UK. M'reen

THE  SAYING  GOODBYE  NOW  EXERCISE.

This is great in the aftermath or when faced with an argument, the loss of a job or person

or those many occasions when your find something to say after the event.

 I felt that this naturally follows How To Say What You Need To Say and

Words That Can Get You Into And Out Of Trouble.

This is also for people who are no longer in your life, through death or distance or estrangement,

or maybe even yourself at a different time of your personality or health

There is also your own (sudden) death to consider. It is best to be in a serene frame of mind 
at your death. Undelivered communication, especially of love, is a major worry for many people, 
especially when brought up sharp by the sudden death of another.

This exercise is very effective and may (in my experience) take ten minutes or even fifty minutes.

In this exercise, you may express to the Universe or to yourself, your thoughts and emotions concerning your loved ones, so that you know that on a spiritual plain a record exists.

If the spiritual aspect is not of importance to you, you will still find this exercise to be 
very calming, relieving and healing.

Work in pairs {on the telephone}  (or by yourself or your reflection in the mirror or to a picture

of the person or while staring into a candle flame as you express your thoughts and feelings).

If you are working with another person and choose to respond silently, you will need to agree 
a verbal or hand signal when you are ready for the next statement. Or the other person will need 
to divide the time up in some way and ask you if you are ready for the next statement.

It is important that you allow yourself plenty of time. The grieving person may need some private time after this session before they are ready to drive a car, or they may need to chat about 
inconsequential things while their mind is elsewhere.

(If you are working with more than one deceased person,

it is important to give your co-worker a list of their first names.)

The co-worker reads the following italics including the four statements.

The only response the co-worker gives when you have finished with each statement –

Is: Thank-you, fine, good, all right or OK.

NOTHING MORE!  This is not a therapy session; the co-worker is a facilitator only.

This is the pre-explanation from the co-worker to the client.

I shall simply ask you to close your eyes and tell the Universe and {name of person} 
(or each of those named persons in turn) – through me – the things you appreciate about them,

 anything you regret having said or done, how you feel about the person, and what you would want them to know. Express those feelings in the most honest and heartfelt way.

 Take your time, speak freely, and allow any emotions to surface.

You may think any really private messages for that person.

Before you (the name of the person you are working with) please tell {the name of the receiver}

and the Universe, through me(the co-worker):

- the things you have appreciated about him/her…   You then say or think what you need…

- anything you regret having said or done………     You then say or think what you need………

- how you feel about him/her…………………    You then say or think what you need………….

- what you want him/her to know………………  You then say or think what you need………

.................................................................................................................................................................

The following exercise is for people in some sort of relationship. So that should the unimaginable happen and a parting is made without the opportunity for a final goodbye, the things we would wish have to have said, in fact, have been said at some point. This exercise allows the freedom to exchange love without rejection or censure,  in doing so it may generate feelings of deep love – and also fear, because of the context of the exercise- that is, the possibility of the death of the partner or indeed yourself. You may speak directly to the person or to their picture or to a candle flame.

THE BEFORE YOU DIE EXERCISE

1.       Before you die, I want to tell you .................      

2.       Before you die, I want you to be certain that ..............

3.       Before you die, I want you to know ............

THE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT EXERCISE

¨       I (like/appreciate/love) the way you .............

¨       I (like/appreciate/love) it when you  .............

¨       I (like/appreciate/love) you because  .............              

Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister blogs:

www.ourmindminds.blogspot.com               this takes advantage of the experience and expertise of others. 

www.turbochargedreading.blogspot.com      describes the steps to reading in the way your mind prefers.

www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com         just for fun.

www.turbochargedreading.com                   for your advanced reading techniques

To quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”