Alternative POIS Forum

Although hands and arms connect mainly with the heart segment, we have just seen that theyalso relate strongly to the throat. You can see too how the throat links in strongly with themouth and jaw: sucking and voice both involve both segments. One could say that the neck
in contrast, links via the base of the neck to the eyes. The neck has the job of supporting thehead, and the attitude which the eye segment takes towards the world will very much affectand be affected by how the neck operates.If the eyes are holding on desperately, then the neck will tend to be correspondingly rigid andinflexible - a proud, 'stiff-necked' attitude may manifest, covering up deeper fear. The morethat someone is stuck in their head as opposed to inhabiting the whole body, the more tensionwill be found in their neck - it has to stop the head from failing off, or from being floodedwith body-feelings. The neck may be stretched out nervously into the world, or protectivelyscrunched up into the shoulders like a turtle.So the combination of eye-linked neck and jaw-linked throat can produce all sorts of differentpostures in this segment Two very important muscles are the big sternocleidomastoids, whichrun on either side from the base of the skull just behind the ears, round the side of the neck,down to the front of the breastbone holding the entire segment together. You may notice thatwhen you are tired and tense these muscles become painful; many headaches originate hereand slowly work their way up into our heads as we try to force ourselves to feel all right bystiffening the posture of our head and neck-Often there is a tendency in people to pull the head back, scrunching up the base of the skullas if to say 'I'm undefeated, 1 won't bow down', but at the same time retreating from facing theworld in front of us. In fact this posture is often associated with short-sightedness, and long-sightedness with pushing the head forward.Many of us are afraid to let our necks go fully, and (as the Alexander Technique emphasises) holding on here can be the central cause of tension and contraction patterns throughout the body.


Exercise 6
You can explore the state of your neck by lying on your back with your head on somethingsoft, and turning it from side to side as rapidly as possible. Don't hold your breath; if you can,let your head flop completely from side to side - and leave your shoulders flat on the floor, just move head and neck. Does this make you sick and dizzy? If so, it's an indication of tension. Also, try lifting your head and bringing it down strongly onto a pillow. Repeat several times; keep breathing, and again, don't use your shoulders. What does this feel like? If  possible, get a friend to help by putting their hands round and under your head, and lifting it gently, moving it from side to side and up and down. Can you let them control the movement,or do you involuntarily help them with your own muscles? Do you have a similar need to stayin charge in your life?
Heart segment ('thoracic')
 The chest, shoulders and upper back, arms and hands, between them make up the heartsegment which must be open for us to express 'big' feelings, strong, expansive emotions,coming out in full resonant voice and powerful gestures. For most of us the heart is to agreater or lesser extent closed off, injuring our capacity for deep feeling and deep contact;because, consciously or unconsciously, it feels bruised, or broken, or frozen, or imprisoned, orhiding.Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a Tibetan teacher, tells us that true contact means taking on andowning a certain painfulness that goes with being open: 'The genuine heart of sadness comes