Alexander Technique
The Alexander technique is a way of learning how to overcome harmful tension in our body. It is a practical method for improving ease and freedom of movement, balance, support, and coordination. It can be seen as a reeducation of the mind and body, rather than a series of treatments or exercises. It teaches discovery of a new balance in the body by releasing unnecessary tension. It can be applied to sitting, standing, lying down, walking, or any other daily activity.
History of Alexander Technique
Alexander (1869-1955) was an Australian Shakespearean Orator who developed his technique as a method of vocal training for singers and actors. He realized that the basis for every successful vocal education was an efficiently functioning breathing mechanism. He focused on reeducating the breathing mechanism and, at the same time, improved the respiratory difficulties of his students. Soon, medical doctors began referring their patients with respiratory ailments to Alexander for help. Thus, the Alexander technique of vocal training developed into a technique for respiratory reeducation.
Alexander also discovered that breathing and vocalization are part of how the body functions as a whole, just as problems we believe to involve just one particular part of the body, like back or neck pain, can be symptoms of general habitual patterns of malcoordination. It is not surprising, therefore, that many people found that his method of respiratory reeducation also helped them with other physical problems.
Alexander had developed a method for learning how to change maladaptive habits of coordination and with it a technique of psychophysical reeducation of the whole person.
Learning the Alexander Technique
The teacher leads the student through basic movements giving him gentle guidance with his hands, showing him fundamental, natural movement and thus stimulating the student’s internal coordination mechanisms to become more accurate without the interference of habits. The Alexander technique does neither involve exercises, nor any form of psychotherapy or spiritual or manual healing technique, instead the teacher guides the student through whole patterns of coordination, including postural patterns and tension, and active movement. The student takes an active part in this process and learns to effectively change his habits.
Benefits of the Alexander Technique
Excess tension in our body can cause a variety of unpleasant symptoms and it can interfere with our ability to perform well. Most people come for treatment because they are in pain, or because they are performing artists who would like to improve the quality of their performing.
The reeducating process taught in the Alexander technique can have many benefits, such as improved posture and alignment, freer and more comfortable movement, easier and healthier breathing, increased strength and vitality. But it can also have a positive effect on a wide range of behaviors and skills like, for instance, the ability to learn.
The Alexander technique has been taught for over a century now, and during that time, many prominent people have publicly endorsed the technique. Among them are authors like George Bernard Shaw, Aldous Huxley, and Roald Dahl; actors like Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Julie Andrews, Ben Kingsley, and Keanu Reeves; musicians like Yehudi Menuhin, Sting, and Paul McCartney, and many, many others.