Many people use the Alexander Technique as a tool to help them deal with change.  In current times, change is inevitable, whether this involves our personal lives or much wider global issues, such as climate change.  The problem with all change is that we have to step away from the familiar and embrace a new, as yet unfamiliar, way of living. We have a lot of thought, emotion and belief invested in our ‘old’ versions of who we are and it can be hard to acknowledge and let go of them.  If our ‘new’ doesn’t feel familiar, it can even cause panic.

I worked with a lady some years ago who was in a lot of discomfort physically and wanted to improve her ‘bad posture’.  At the end of half an hour or so, she stood tall and straight and felt ‘different’. I thought she looked great. Then she looked in the mirror. I don’t know what she saw, but she burst into tears, exclaimed ‘I could never let my friends see me looking like this’, and left.  I never saw her again.

Dealing with my own personal current change recently, I found myself posing the question:

‘Do you care more about who you were than about who you are?’  

It was only when I recognised  how much I had invested in my old ‘stories’ that I was able to to move on from the impasse where I found myself.

Who do you care most about?

I hope you all enjoy this year of change and new beginnings

Susan