Lose Weight in Less Than 1 Minute

05/07/2012 By Leave a Comment

Tired of those weight gimmicks, well this one is actually works and is noticeably different. It involves no fad diets or exercise regimes and you don’t have to undergo surgery.

So what is the magic answer? Well actually it is YOU! It is how you use your body and how you walk, stand and sit. The body is a wonder of nature and is designed to keep us upright and function with optimal efficiency. What happens however is that we get in the way and put kinks in our own design.

How many people have you seen walking down the street with their bellies hanging out, their hips pushed forward and their shoulder pushed back. They are putting amazing strain on their bodies and are in fact, “out of whack’. Take a look in the mirror, does your tummy stick out too far, is your lower back arched?

Now think about releasing your bottom and allowing it to drop toward the floor, allow your shoulders to soften and relax, allow your head sit comfortably on top of your spine, without tension or stress.

Allow your whole torso to move and breathe.

Take another look in the mirror, had your stomach come back under your body, is your bottom sticking out less, do your shoulder look powerful and strong?

80% of Australians surveyed say they would like to lose weight (Source: Good Weekend, March 2012). How many could make a difference by just looking after their posture and letting their body do what it is designed for…..

Filed Under: Posture & Fitness

Should I Stay Or Should I Go? The Flight/Fight Response

04/06/2012 By Leave a Comment

Ever felt your hairs stand on end, when you hear a bump in the night? What would you do if there were an intruder, would you stay and fight or would you run? This is hopefully a hypothetical scenario, but you can no doubt imagine, your heart starting to race, your breath becoming shallow, your eyes wide open and sensations pulsing through your body awaiting the next signal. The release of adrenaline heightens the body’s readiness to flee or fight. Fear or heightened stress prompts a complete emotional, physical and chemical response.

Fundamental fears such a basic survival, warmth and being eaten by an animal have been minimised and now replaced by running for the bus, meeting that deadline or getting the kids to school on time. Extended or repeated stress and fear places strain on the body resulting in high blood pressure, heart disease and anxiety. You need to learn how to manage your fears and stressors. The first level of defence is subconscious evidenced by pulling your head back, changes in breath etc. Secondly, your conscious mind comes into play, where you are able to influence and potentially choose your response. Emotional and physical response can be retrained and relearned. Maybe you don’t have to be scared of speaking to that crowd after all.

In closing, don’t forget that a little fear is actually a good thing, the stressful situations challenge your brain to create new options and pathways for processing and the chemical release actually aids to create new memories and improve your mood. Be honest, a little excited buzz is great once in a while!

Filed Under: Featured, Posture & Fitness, Stress Reduction

Seeing is Believing! Improving your Eyesight Naturally

04/05/2012 By Leave a Comment

Can you remember back to the first time you noticed that you couldn’t quite see as well as you thought? For me it was when I was 26, playing about with a friend’s glasses at the office and suddenly realised the venetian blinds actually had very crisp edges. I then went on to wear glasses and contacts for the next 10 years. During my Alexander Technique training we were not encouraged to wear visual aids and to work with our eyes naturally. Well I must say they improved dramatically and others in my class even went from a 7 to a 5 “in glasses speak” in only 12 months.

We were guided by the principles of Ophthalmologist William Bates (1860-1931) who through his works including Better Eyesight Without Glasses, found that eye strain and poor vision was commonly related to one’s habitual strain and misuse of the eye and its proper functioning. My eye teachers have come from a wonderful group called Altevi (www.altevi.com) who specifically focus (excuse the pun) on addressing habitual eye strain and how it can be relieved to improve eyesight naturally.

So what can you do about it now? We firstly take off your glasses or contacts at least once a day, in a place you feel safe and explore seeing without them. We often push our eyes out of our heads in an attempt to focus and see better. This causes more strain and tension on the eye and surrounding muscles, stops us blinking and narrows our overall field of vision.

Try this: Step 1- Allow your eyes to release naturally back into their sockets, as though they are resting back onto their own little cushion. Notice what that is like. Allow yourself to blink and lubricate your eye.

Step 2: Now allow what ever you are looking at to “come towards you”. So instead of you trying to see out… allow the picture to come in towards your soft, relaxed eyes.

Step 3: Notice how much you can actually see around you. Not only can you see directly in front of you, but also your peripheral vision will be activated to allow you to see to the left, right and up and down. (Hint: Pop our eyes out and see how far your peripheral vision extends….hmm, what a difference hey?) Ok, I know, let them relax again, a much nicer and clearer place to be.

Step 4: Notice how often you tense your eyes and try to “concentrate”. Once you notice, can you allow them to release and start to form a new healthy eye habit?

There are many activities that can be integrated into your day to improve your vision naturally. If you are in Rural Victoria, come along to our workshop at Beechworth on 21st May and we will have a workshop in second half of 2012 for our Melbournians colleagues. For our international folks, check out Altevi for a workshop near you!

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Using Better Posture to Relieve Back Pain

26/01/2012 By Leave a Comment

What is better posture? Well it’s probably not what you think… remember when your mother or teacher told you to sit up straight and you held yourself so tight you might burst. Holding excess muscle tension will actually make you tired and cause aches, pain and possibly injury. Good posture is actually about easeful co-ordination and freedom of movement.

Your body is designed to hold itself up. Think of a tent. There are guy ropes distributed around the tent to allow it to stand upright, each of the ropes as a counter balance to the others. Well that’s what happens in our bodies. (It’s actually called a tensegrity structure.) We have layers of muscles, all designed to expand and contract to allow us to balance and move.

Most people hold far too much tension in their bodies and often overwork or misuse themselves to the point of stress or pain. The Alexander Technique is a process of educating our bodies to address harmful habits of posture and movement. In 2008, the British Medical Journal published an extensive study on the effectiveness of the Alexander Technique for the relief of chronic back pain. Significant pain relief was experienced with at least six Alexander Technique lessons and regular light exercise. See our Resources section for further information

The heading of our first blog is actually taken from the Panadol Australia website. The makers of medicated pain relief advocate better posture for pain relief. We’ve known it all along.

So for a little less pain and a little more ease contact the team at Pathways to Performance® and ‘…rethink your potential™’.

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Picture Perfect?

20/12/2011 By Leave a Comment

A friend once asked me, “Why do you always have your chin up in photos?” I thought… “No I don’t” and ignored the comment. Until one day, when flicking through some photos, I saw that she was right! In all of my photos, I had my head thrown back and chin in the air.

What I didn’t know was that this was creating an excess of muscle tension in my neck, jaw and pressure down my spine. I regularly had a sore neck and shoulders, but never knew that my habits would have contributed to my pain.

One of the most challenging aspects in setting up the Pathways to Performance® website was to find the right pictures to represent our four services. So many pictures showed people who were either “underengaged” and floppy or “overengaged” and tense.

Take a look at photos of yourself. Do you tilt your head to one side? Do you stand or lean on one leg? Do you slump when you sit or puff up your chest when you pose for a photo? We all want to look good and be fit and healthy. You habits of posture and movement contribute to your health and wellbeing.

Become aware of what do you and you can then find new opportunities you never thought possible ‘…rethink your potential™’.

 

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