Freedom to Choose

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Stumbling across somatic educational practices including the Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method changed my life. Beginning with the physical I slowly gained a consciousness of habitual physical patterns I used in everything I did that contributed to my experience of life. I later came to realise that my patterns of thinking were also habitual, often negative and undermining my wellbeing. I began to recognise and understood the force of habit in my life. The power this has to rule our lives and keep us stuck in patterns of thinking and movement which may have once served us well, but may no longer.

About eight years ago I found myself in a place of pain at every level. I was suffering from a deep depression, high anxiety and expanding physical pain, which grew from initial smaller injuries. I felt frightened and despairing about my capacity to have a productive future.

Over many decades I had lived and worked for organisations committed to change in the community and world. I had worked hard, sought to understand and support marginalised people (through my work and broader life) and to live a productive life. I had three and half years away from the paid workforce, descending into what I identified as my “dark night of the soul”. Very slowly as time went on, through some amazing, wiser people and my own resilience I was led in a new direction.

I came to understand myself more deeply. I recognised I was wedded to certain patterns of thinking which had contributed to my withdrawal from life. I realised I had a whole host of stories about my life that no longer served me. With the support of mindfulness meditation, the Alexander Technique and a number of ‘wise elders’ I slowly began to make significant changes.

Trauma, loss and learnt ways of being in families and community form our views of the world, our postural patterns and our ability to adapt in the face of change. The Alexander Technique and other somatic practices support individuals to:

• Calm the nervous system.
• Identify how they allow or are constrained by their thinking and movement patterns.
• Learn through everyday movement to undo unnecessary neuro-muscular tension thereby opening to a more easeful, expanded way of being.

 The Alexander Technique supports an expansion of awareness of the whole person – the indivisibility of body and mind – and allows a more spacious way of living and inhabiting our selves. It teaches us to recognise and use the space between stimulus and response to make choices with consciousness – for the old way, for a new way or something completely unexpected to arise.

I now have the privilege to support others who are brought to this practice and am filled with  excitement to witness those breakthrough moments when a person discovers a new way to release an old learnt pattern, which may have held them constrained for years or even decades.

Anne works with individuals, community groups and with industry-specific groups (see: \Optimum Dental Posture) to find greater ease whether at work, home or in life generally.

Anne is available in:

North Fitzroy on Mondays 

Boronia Tuesday & Thursdays

Other times by special appointment.

For more information contact Anne at: Mindful Movement Education

You translate everything, whether physical, mental or spiritual, into muscular tension. F.M. Alexander, Aphorisms