My nasal congestion is a controllable phenomenon
I noticed something really interesting.
Several years ago I came to notice that within minutes of lying down, I wouldn't be able to breathe through my nose due to a severe nasal congestion. My family took me to the GP who referred me to an ENT specialist, who sent me to an allergist who had me tested, and everybody came to the conclusion that since I was allergic to dust mites, it must be dust mite allergens in the house that are causing my nasal passages to become inflamed and block up in the night.
So we took this on board, and I began a nearly-constant course of saline solution and nasal steroids, to clear out and prevent the inflammation. Somewhere around this time though, I did notice something rather interesting. Sometimes, whenever I got up from bed to go and get a glass of water, the congestion would go away almost immediately. This was pretty encouraging though annoying, because it would always return really quickly after lying down again, sometimes even within seconds.
Cut forward to today, and I am taking Alexander lessons. In summary, the Alexander technique is concerned with lengthening and widening the stature, and one of the purported benefits of this is to ease the constriction in the body cavity, giving internal organs better room to move and function. After a few weeks of lessons, it's clear that my posture has improved dramatically. My teacher laughs about the first lesson, describing me as having looked like "a scrunched up little mole".
In any case, one of the ways to practice the technique, introduced early on, is to lie down flat on the floor with the knees up and a couple of books firmly supporting the head. The purpose of this is to put yourself into a position where gravity can gently help the process of lengthening and widening out. In any case I've rambled here, but the thing I noticed today is that when I follow these newly-developed good habits, my nasal congestion is non-existent.
I only really noticed this today because I was drinking heavily last night. When I went to bed I more or less scrunched myself up and tightened all over because I was suffering from a horrible nausea. I remember waking up several times with the splitting headache, but more relevant to this discussion I couldn't breathe through my nose. I dimwittedly spent several drunk, nauseated minutes or hours trying my best to breathe through my nose, but inevitably falling back to gasping for air through the mouth. It was fun =/
In the morning though, I was better able to get a handle on the situation. Having received some Alexander training I now noticed that the position I was lying in had me all tightened and bunched up in a really horrible way, from the perspective of the technique. And I noticed pretty dramatically, that on straightening myself out on the bed, my congestion gradually subsided and melted away - and the nose cleared immediately and completely after getting myself up onto my feet and lengthening forwards and upwards and widening as I've practiced in the lessons.
Several years ago I came to notice that within minutes of lying down, I wouldn't be able to breathe through my nose due to a severe nasal congestion. My family took me to the GP who referred me to an ENT specialist, who sent me to an allergist who had me tested, and everybody came to the conclusion that since I was allergic to dust mites, it must be dust mite allergens in the house that are causing my nasal passages to become inflamed and block up in the night.
So we took this on board, and I began a nearly-constant course of saline solution and nasal steroids, to clear out and prevent the inflammation. Somewhere around this time though, I did notice something rather interesting. Sometimes, whenever I got up from bed to go and get a glass of water, the congestion would go away almost immediately. This was pretty encouraging though annoying, because it would always return really quickly after lying down again, sometimes even within seconds.
Cut forward to today, and I am taking Alexander lessons. In summary, the Alexander technique is concerned with lengthening and widening the stature, and one of the purported benefits of this is to ease the constriction in the body cavity, giving internal organs better room to move and function. After a few weeks of lessons, it's clear that my posture has improved dramatically. My teacher laughs about the first lesson, describing me as having looked like "a scrunched up little mole".
In any case, one of the ways to practice the technique, introduced early on, is to lie down flat on the floor with the knees up and a couple of books firmly supporting the head. The purpose of this is to put yourself into a position where gravity can gently help the process of lengthening and widening out. In any case I've rambled here, but the thing I noticed today is that when I follow these newly-developed good habits, my nasal congestion is non-existent.
I only really noticed this today because I was drinking heavily last night. When I went to bed I more or less scrunched myself up and tightened all over because I was suffering from a horrible nausea. I remember waking up several times with the splitting headache, but more relevant to this discussion I couldn't breathe through my nose. I dimwittedly spent several drunk, nauseated minutes or hours trying my best to breathe through my nose, but inevitably falling back to gasping for air through the mouth. It was fun =/
In the morning though, I was better able to get a handle on the situation. Having received some Alexander training I now noticed that the position I was lying in had me all tightened and bunched up in a really horrible way, from the perspective of the technique. And I noticed pretty dramatically, that on straightening myself out on the bed, my congestion gradually subsided and melted away - and the nose cleared immediately and completely after getting myself up onto my feet and lengthening forwards and upwards and widening as I've practiced in the lessons.