One of the trickiest things about the Alexander Technique is trying to explain it to someone who has never experienced it. It is not like the more commonly known treatments or 'techniques' for change, such as pilates, yoga, tai chi, chiropractic, osteopathy, physiotherapy or cognitive behavioural therapy.
As an Alexander Technique teacher, I use verbal instruction and/or a guiding touch to help you discover both mental and physical patterns which you have in daily life. The Alexander Technique can create profound physical change, but it's not about working on 'your body', rather it is an educational approach which involves the whole you, from your point of view. It's about learning what we are doing to sustain, add to, or even cause some of the problems in our lives. It's a way to move or just sit still with less effort.
Over our lifetime, we adapt to our environment by developing habits, allowing us to automate tasks and freeing our mind for other activities. The development of a habit is evident when learning to drive, where first everything takes a lot of thinking and eventually over time seems to go 'on autopilot'. We each develop unique habits. These habits can vary depending on who we are and how we go about life. A person working in a confined office space will have a different 'shape' and way of moving than someone who worked outdoors all their life. Aside from these 'physical' habits, different people may also develop more 'mental' habits, responding differently to the same situation, such as being late for work - one person may become tense and anxious, while another person might not feel tense or anxious at all.
Although habits are useful, some can be inefficient and cause compressions, tensions, restrictions and strains. Old habits may no longer be necessary in the persons's life and can cause problems or restrict a person's potential - a person who spent their life worked at a desk may be unable to enjoy physical activities due to accumulated tension in their body.
Habits by their nature and function are unconscious, the Alexander Technique works by taking mental and physical habits back to your awareness. It is only with conciousness that they can be seen clearly - to be explored, examined, and shed if they are harmful. Using the Alexander Technique, you learn how to stop habits that interfere with your body's natural coordination. Through this rediscovery of natural movement (and how you interfere with it), your whole system - body and mind - returns to its natural state of balance and ease.
Learning In Activity
Learning may take place while exploring basic movements, such as sitting, standing, walking and bending.
We perform these movements every day, but rarely realise the effects these movements have on our whole system. The vast majority of us misunderstand or fail to notice the signals our body sends us. Part of lessons is 'tuning in' to these signals, known as the 'proprioceptive' sense.
Proprioception is different from your sense of touch, it is your ability to 'know' where and how you are oriented in your environment. Proprioception includes your balance, your sense of momentum, the sense of tension in your limbs, and your spacial sense - where your limbs are oriented in relation to the rest of you, etc. As you 'tune in' to your proprioception, you move in an improved way, involving less strain, more ease and more freedom.
The founder of the Technique, FM Alexander once said, "If you stop the wrong thing, the right thing does itself." We are inherently healthy. The key to change is in uncovering the 'bad ' and removing it from your life. Good health then simply happens.
Perceptions
Another aspect to learning may involve uncovering the perceptions in which we approach certain situations, and learning to respond to those situations differently. This is common with physical problems that are related to 'mental' perceptions, such as anxiety, stress, nervousness, etc. This will usually involve verbal exploration moreso than hands-on work. It's a fascinating and also powerful method for change.
'Homework'
Alexander Technique is an educational approach to health - you are learning how to function with less effort and tension. In ways it's like learning an instrument, you do need to explore what you have been shown if you want to become competent. Things that were once automatic become concious. This can be a challenge, but it is also fascinating.
Workshops and Classes
Classes are an excellent, cost-effective way to introduce yourself to the ideas taught in the Alexander Technique. You can learn a great deal from workshops, which typically cover the basics. When you are in a group, you get the benefit of hearing the insights of other participants. Another upside to working in a workshop, as opposed to a one-to-one lesson, is you can observe changes in others much easier than you can feel them in yourself.
Workshops and classes are complimentary to one-to-one lessons, however they can not always substitute them. By far the greatest benefits to your own functioning are found in one-to-one sessions.
