What is the Alexander Technique?
The Alexander Technique is a unique system of health re-education. It works on the basis that the way we move and carry out our activities ('use ourselves') affects our functioning - mobility, breathing, digestion, etc. The Technique shows us how to unlearn the habits that create excessive muscular tension and mental and emotional stress. It works gradually to restore to us some of the freedom and lightness of movement that we enjoyed as small children.
Why do we need it?
Why do we go from this ... to this?
As small children, we move freely and easily, as nature intended. We squat to pick up a toy. Our spines are strong and flexible, without undue curves, and our heads are balanced lightly on top of our necks.
As we grow older, though, the pressures of modern life begin to take their toll. We spend many hours a day sitting in a fixed position - in the car, at school or work. When we get home, we collapse in front of the TV. The work we do may sometimes be tiring, repetitive, dull. Above all, we are constantly bombarded with stimuli - the ringing phone; the hooting of the driver in the car behind; emails; a looming deadline; a toddler's constant questions. Everyone expects us to respond straight away.
In trying to meet these demands, we put a lot of unnecessary effort into every action, over-tightening muscles in some areas of the body in the process, while muscles in other areas become slack through not being used. In particular, we tend to pull our heads back, interfering with the correct relationship between the head, neck and back which is crucial for the balance, co-ordination and mobility of the whole human structure. As time goes on, this 'overdoing' can lead to problems such as headaches, stiff necks and shoulders, back pain, poor mobility, RSI, vocal and breathing problems, digestive trouble and stress.
Alexander saw this 'overdoing' as a response to the fast pace of change in technologically advanced societies since the late 19th century. Certainly, if we look for role models of poise and co-ordination, we tend to find them in images of small children or animals or some people in so-called 'less-developed' societies.
Compare the calmness and poise of the Chinese boatman on the left with the tension and awkward body language in the picture on the right. We cannot turn back the clock or slow our society down, but we can choose how we respond to it.