Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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Phonecall posture
One of my clients was telling me today about her conversation with a friend who is also having lessons in the Alexander Technique. Apparently during a lesson she had been asked about when she answers the phone, does she grip the phone tightly and press it hard against her ear? Naturally there is no real reason why we should do this although many of us do.
So I passed the phone in my teaching room to my client who was sitting and asked her to just hold it on her knee for a moment. Then while keeping her neck free and her head 'going upwards' as she does to maintain her full height, I asked her to 'answer the phone', but do so without shortening her stature and she should stay tall. She did so nicely but immediately burst into laughter and said how strange it felt. Clearly she was used to stooping and lowering her head downwards to the phone instead of bringing the phone right up to her ear without stooping.
We did the same exercise while standing and this felt even more unusual. She described the sensation as being where the phone seems to travel a great distance up to her ear, compared with how she probably answers the phone by stooping downwards.
There are often times when we are working at a desk or table, or we refer to a document when speaking on the phone so we peer downwards and this causes us to go into a stoop. When done often enough it becomes a habit and the simple process of speaking on the phone starts to affect our whole posture and health. We get stiff necks, hunched shoulders, stooped posture, squashed tummy, it affects our breathing, circulation and digestion.
You might like to try this little exercise for yourself. Bring yourself up to your full height if you can, without straining and then 'answer the phone' by bringing it right up to your ear without stooping. It may feel quite strange at first, but I could almost guarantee you'll think more clearly, be more expressive, open minded and happier if you do. You'll also help your posture.
