Learning to change HOW you are doing WHAT you are doing

The Alexander Technique results in improved posture, balance, coordination, breathing, performance and relief from pain. It is a way of bringing more awareness and practical intelligence to WHAT you are doing and HOW you are doing it. Using your body well means using your WHOLE self well-mind and body together. When we let go of old, conditioned habits that influence our thoughts and actions, a more natural, spontaneous way of responding can come about. The Alexander Technique is about learning to change habits, and learning to do things with more ease and efficiency. This allows us to be lighter, more fluid, relaxed and responsive.

Who was F.M. Alexander?

The Alexander Technique was developed over 100 years ago by Frederick Matthias Alexander, an Australian actor. Chronic laryngitis nearly ruined his career, and after many unproductive doctors’ visits, he took it upon himself to find the source of his vocal problem. Using mirrors, Alexander carefully studied the way he used himself while in the midst of speaking and found that he was creating excessive tension throughout his body that indirectly depressed his larynx, consequently causing him to lose his voice. He used his personal discoveries to cure his laryngitis. Alexander became known as the `breathing man’, teaching those with breathing or vocal disorders, and later used his technique to teach many other people with musculoskeletal and stress-related problems. He developed and refined a practical method for eliminating harmful tension patterns and establishing in their place poise, efficiency, and ease in any activity.

Why do we need it?

In western cultures particularly, the grace and coordination we had as children is often lost. As we grow older, we develop unhealthy habits of using our bodies (and our whole selves), resulting in chronic muscle tension, pain, poor posture,hampered performance and overall stress. We become so accustomed to our habits that though they feel ‘right ‘ or at least familiar, pain and tension tell us something is ‘wrong’. When these conditions arise, we must re-think how we go about our daily lives. Using the Alexander Technique, we can un-learn these patterns of mis-use, however,replacing stress and pain with the poise and coordination that nature intended. The Alexander Technique creates positive, long-lasting changes in the way we think, move, and respond to the world.

“What is needed is to learn afresh, to observe and to discover the meaning of wholeness” 

-David Bohm