How much does your head weigh?

(Pictures: F.M.Alexander standing and working.)

Try lifting a 6kg sack of potatoes. That is how much some heads weigh!

What do you think happens when this heavy globe is not properly balanced on the top of your spine?Your voice enters the world through your head. All wrong coordination of the relationship between the head, neck and back disturbs the voice.

Did you know that more than half of your receptors for kinesthetic awareness are located in the neck?

Yes, clearly  it is very important that the head is not out of balance with the rest of the body and is not “pulling you down”.

If the neck is out of balance, the small muscles at the base of the skull, called sub-occipital muscles (“headache muscles”) become permanently contracted and cause headaches. All the other neck muscles become contracted and tense aswell, which makes the problem even worse and leads to further disturbances.

Your head contains your eyes, ears and balance mechanisms and so if it is not in balance itself, many other things may not function as they should. 

In addition the rest of the body is also thrown badly out of balance and pressure builds up in all the wrong places (in the spine and joints).

Experience has shown that many forms of headache including migrains often disappear when the relationship between the head, neck and back is brought back into balance through the Alexander Technique or through Re-Orientation Technique.