How to Meet Your Body in the Moment

Move with understanding, not effort.

When you don’t have the energy—or when your body just says no—this gentle Alexander Technique practice helps you reconnect with yourself in the moment.

You’ll learn how to:

• Notice how your body prepares for movement (often with hidden tension)

• Let go of that preparation and come back to what’s actually happening

• Move with ease and curiosity rather than control or habit

If you’d like to go deeper, I offer free consultations in which we can discuss what you need and how to apply this work to your body and your movement.

A transcript of the video is below if you’d prefer to read rather than watch and listen.

Hello, friend.

I'm on the floor today.

This is not what I had planned on doing, but I don't have the emotional or physical energy to do what I planned, which actually dovetails quite nicely into this work.

Before I go any further, if you're able, I invite you to lie down on the floor as well. There's something quite wonderful about it. Maybe you'd like a little bit of support under your head. I have a couple of supports here under my head just so that your head isn't falling backward when you lie down or you're not trying to flatten your neck.

So how does this dovetail? Well, it comes into meeting your body where it is rather than trying to make it do something that you had planned.

We often try to make our body do certain movements, move in a certain way, whether or not that's really the best or even good for our bodies in that moment. And we're usually doing it because it's what we're used to.

The wonderful thing, especially about being a highly sensitive mover, is that you already have the capacity to listen to your body. It's just a practice that we want to bring more and more into life.

What that means is starting to connect to where your body already is and allowing it to do what it's already doing rather than trying to make it do something that you're about to do.

This was not at all my plan, but I'm going to demonstrate this and guide you through it if you'd like to come along.

I’ll related this whole process to being on the floor and getting up off of the floor. I love this movement because it's beautifully complex and it involves so many different choices and that is an important aspect as well.

When we start to let go of what we think we have to do or what we're used to doing, many more options start to show up.

So, come lie down with me. Here we are on the ground. That’s something that's already happening.

Your head is supported. Your back is supported.

All this wonderful support.

Then we'll start to play with repatterning, shifting from the pattern or the trajectory that you're used to doing, the habit I might say, and replace it with something else.

We'll start to bring that habit out by having the desire to get up. So if I just throw that at myself, “okay, get up,” my impulse is to come forward, is to try to roll up, just sit up. And I already noticed there's this tightening that happens in me, this preparatory tightening in order to get up. My legs start to engage a bit.

Notice what happens in yourself when you give this kind of command. I don't love that word, but I'm going to throw it out there. This command to get up. What begins to happen in your body?

Now, you're actually still lying on the floor. So, you get to kinesthetically and mentally come back to just lying on the floor. And you can let go of that preparation to get up.

So for me, when I do that, my head settles a little bit. My neck softens a little because it's not preparing to pull my head forward. My legs just let go a little. And when that happens, here's the pathway you're on of what you're used to doing with your body, whether or not it works.

I mean, it works to an extent. I have a different definition of “work”. I don't just mean, “do you get it done?” But instead, can you accomplish it in a way that's fluid, that's easy, that feels good, that's not thrown away?

That's closer to my definition of when I say, “does it work?”

So here's the pathway you were on. We let go of that. We come back to where you just are. And that starts a new pathway. And when I start to let go of that initial impulse, I realize, oh, I could actually go this direction. I could go that direction.

I probably won't go that way because there's this stand here and that would make it more complicated and I’m not going to choose the more complicated path unless there's some good reason to.

When you let go of that initial path, you can accommodate and recognize what your body might want instead.

If you're having neck issues or back issues, you probably actually don't want to try to sit straight up or roll straight up. That's not going to feel very good.

But it takes a moment to connect with it, to see how you're preparing, how your body is preparing, and let it go by recognizing where you already are.

You're lying on the floor. You have a head.

I’ve said this before, it's crazy how quickly we forget we even have a head.

We have limbs.

The breath is moving. You don't have to make yourself breathe. It's already happening.

Connect with what's already happening.

And then I have that impulse again to get up. I notice that impulse to roll forward is there again. Even though I just let it go, it's there again. Well, no surprise. That's a very old pattern.

So if it shows up again in you, you just go, "Oh, yeah. I see that.”

And you come back kinesthetically again to what's already happening.

Your head is supported. Your back is supported.

The breath is moving. It's already moving.

Now, as you play with actually coming to standing or whatever your version of standing is, I'd like you to take three pauses in which you stop, take a moment to see, recognize what you're about to do and how that shows up in your body, and then kinesthetically come back to where you are.

I'll talk it through as I'm doing it so you have a frame of reference, but you might do it in a different way.

I'm going to start to roll to my left.

And right here, I'm going to pause. And I see in my body there's this pull forward. I'm going to exaggerate it. There's this want to tense up my belly, pull in my hips, pull my neck a little bit because I think I need to do something now.

And instead, I'm going to kinesthetically come back to where I am, which is actually that my head is supported.

When I reminded myself my head is supported, it actually softened into the support and my head turned because when I was here, I was suddenly preparing to lift my head.

Oh, it's supported. My neck just let go.

Oh, my breath is there. It's already breathing.

I know I'm doing something with my right arm, preparing. I'm just going to remind myself I have an arm and it wants to come a little closer into the ground.

Okay, now that I've let go of that preparation, I can begin to just move.

And then here, I'm going to pause again because I know for myself, this is a point where it seems like, “oh, I’ve really got to do something now.”

So, I'm seeing how I want to push, how I want to brace with my arms.

I remind myself I have breath. It's already there. I have a head. I kind of forgot a little bit that I had a head because I was so focused on my arms. I was so focused on one part of my body.

Okay. Then I'm going to continue. And I'm going to pause here again.

There’s this preparatory push with my leg. I can feel my quads trying to tighten up. I forgot I had a head again. My head was pulling into my belly a little bit to prepare to push with my arms and my leg.

So, I'm just going to say, “you know what? That's not what I'm doing right now.” I'm just going to come into the position I'm in and let myself be here and let go of that preparation.

Okay. And then I thought I was going to push up, but actually I'm not. I'm going to take this leg back instead. That was a little surprise for me. I didn't know I was going to do that.

And then I ended up standing and now I'm back down. Actually, I'm going come all the way back down because I don't like the position I was in.

You can use these pauses in an activity you're doing to notice what your body is preparing to do.

What do you think you're about to do? And how is your body preparing? Then kinesthetically coming back into the position that you're already in and letting your body be there.

Each time you do that, you're shifting off that pattern of habit, which might be causing pain, contributing to your pain. It's not really using your body as easily and fluidly as you could. And you're shifting off of that and coming back into just letting your body be.

Then you're moving from there. You’re setting these new patterns.

I invite you to honor what your body needs in this moment, what it needs today. That's a real practice to recognize.

If you enjoyed this video, please let the mysterious algorithm know by commenting, liking, and subscribing. Leave any comments about what worked for you, what didn't, any questions you have. I read those and they help me make future videos that will better speak to you and help you because that is my goal.

Thanks for joining me today.

Until we meet again, take care.