The Alexander Technique can help you become aware of your unconscious movement and positional habits in order to provide an opportunity to find a better way to use yourself. Originated by F.M. Alexander around 1900, the technique can be applied to any activity in which you wish to have more easeful and supported movement. Hands-on guidance from an Alexander Technique teacher can assist your exploration of the technique’s principles.
Use of Self
The way your body moves affects your function. Many aches and pains can be aggravated or even originate from poor use of your muscles and joints. Your movement habits can interfere with the natural relationship between your head, neck, spine and postural muscles. When you allow yourself to breathe, sit, walk or perform any activity without the strain of your body’s natural habits, then those activities become much easier to perform.
Faulty Sensory Awareness
Sometimes the information that the receptors in your body relay to your brain is not accurate. If your body is used to a certain position, then that position may feel neutral to you even though it is actually poor mechanics. If a muscle constantly has tension on it, then slowly your body is not aware of that sensation anymore because it suppresses the constant feedback from the muscle. The Alexander Technique can help you become more aware of what your body is telling you in order to restore reliable feedback.
Inhibition
F.M. Alexander stated, “If you stop doing the wrong thing, the right thing will do itself.” Before you can have balance throughout your body with any activity, you have to be able to remove the faulty awareness and the habits that follow. You have to say "no" to moving in the patterns you are used to, and pause to think about how the movement could have less tension in it.
Primary Control
Primary Control is the name that F.M. Alexander used for the relationship of the neck, head and back. He discovered that the position of the Primary Control acted as a reflex for how the entire body reacted. When you ensure that your head, neck and back relationship exists without excess tension, then other parts of your body become freer without having to focus on them.
Direction
A simple thought in your brain can produce a change in your body, which was an important discovery to F.M. Alexander. He found that when he thought about the direction he wanted his body to move, he could actually see physical changes in his body position. He did not force his body into the new position, but simply thought directions that would allow the movement to flow freely. The directions that allow easy movement throughout the body are, “Let the neck be free, to let the head go forward and up, to let the back lengthen and widen.”
Endgaining
When you concentrate on completing a specific task, then you lose awareness of what your body is doing. F.M. Alexander believed that concentrating more on the task rather than how your body is feeling, is how poor use and bad habits can develop. Instead of going on autopilot and only thinking about the task, the Alexander Technique uses awareness, inhibition and mental directions to make the task easier for your body to complete.
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