Update: Asthma and the Alexander Technique - for adults and children!
I do not claim to have discovered any new method of breathing, but to understand the only true one – Nature’s
F. M. Alexander
Here are two an excellent blog posts about how the Alexander Technique can help the symptoms of Asthma (and breathing issues in general).
They've been written by Beret Arcaya, a New-York-based Alexander-Technique teacher (and incidentally the one who introduced me to the Alexander Technique in 1998!):
Asthma gives a feeling that you cannot inhale air. In reality, the sufferer cannot exhale. But it does not feel that way (unreliable kinesthesia).
For asthmatics, the ease of air in and air out which is normal for all creatures is totally disrupted. It is a horrible condition and can cause death. It feels as if you will suffocate as the airways in the lungs spasm preventing you from breathing and causing a panic and then more spasm and more fear.
»Click here to go to Beret's blog and read her first post concerning Asthma and the A.T.
Two days later Beret wrote a follow-up article that illustrates the dramatic effects the Alexander technique can have on young children with asthma:
Terry was about 9 months old, not yet walking (...), had presented with asthma from one month or less and had been rushed to the emergency room a few times. (... ) I noticed at once that this head/neck relationship was not as free as we’d expect in a child and then she told me about his condition.
(...) At first Terry was fussy and didn’t like his head and neck touched but gradually he quieted down and seemed to enjoy it. We noticed a change that day in the depth of his breathing (...) In less than 6 “lessons” he was able to take half the medicines and didn’t gasp for air or have the sudden onset attacks he had had before. By the time he was walking (...) the asthma was minimal.
(... )Terry is now 2 and a half. His asthma is nearly gone and his doctor is happy that he is “outgrowing it.” Terry and his parents are happier.
»Click here to read the entire article about The Primary Control and Asthma Conditions in Young Children
Both very recommended!
