I wrote this post for National Stress Awareness Month in May of 2006. I imagine many of your are experiencing stress. The Alexander Technique is a vital tool in managing your stress.
Here are the top three physical symptoms of stress, cited from this website in May 2006:
sleep disturbances
back, shoulder or neck pain
tension or migraine headaches
The Alexander Technique addresses stress and tension from a mental and a physical approach.
On the mental level, students learn to identify their unique stress triggers, and how to slow down the rate at which they react to those situations. For example, when facing an unpleasant event (dental visit, presentation at work, loaded family interactions), learning to recognize the anticipatory anxiety, in the form of self-talk, can allow the student to then notice the physical responses. This can include tightening the neck, tensing shoulder or jaw, and perhaps subtle breath-holding.
Observing inner dialogue, some of my students realize they are feeding their anxiety by expecting negative experiences, or recalling past events over and over. They are able to re-direct where they put their attention, and find they can minimize the affect of their worry.
On the physical level, students can learn to release degrees of tension and contraction in the neck, shoulders, jaw and elsewhere. Even when their thoughts wander to triggers, they can still release muscle tension, minimizing the impact of the stress.