Explained: The Alexander Technique
© Colin Openshaw, 6th June 2006
The Alexander Technique is a method for improving the way you use your body. By learning it, you can improve your co-ordination, poise, posture and breathing. You can also improve your self-awareness and self-control, and consequently you benefit from it at a psychological level. You don’t just end up better looking, you also end up with better powers of judgement, so that you don’t waste your energy.
Mostly, people misuse themselves in various ways in their everyday lives. For example, you may sit hunched over your computer all day at work, before spending the evening slumped in the sofa in front of the TV. Even very active people are likely to waste their energy by misusing themselves while they carry out their activities. The human beings you see walking down the average street lack the graceful movement we see exhibited by all healthy animals.
Many people are unaware that they misuse themselves. An Alexander teacher can quickly point out what is wrong with the way you use your self. But being told this is not enough, because usually people who misuse themselves cannot perceive accurately what they are doing wrong.
For example, a person who hunches his shoulders forwards and up towards his ears may not be able to see that anything is wrong. And if, when shown, he accepts that he is hunching his shoulders, he will not know where to begin in putting it right. If he tries to correct his hunched shoulders by putting them down and back, it is likely that he will make matters worse. He won’t be able to register accurately what he is doing with his muscles – if he could, he wouldn’t have the problem in the first place. He will probably make himself more tense in the shoulders as well as making himself uncomfortable, and he won’t be able to keep up his attempt for more than a few minutes.
An Alexander teacher has a well worked out process for remedying this situation. She will explain to the man who hunches his shoulders that he must do nothing directly to try and improve his misuse. Instead he must look at the problem in terms of prevention. He has a bad habit of hunching the shoulders, and he must stop himself from indulging in this habit. Using her hands, the teacher can help the man to direct his energies differently so that he tends to hunch his shoulders less. This means re-organising the way he uses his whole body – his head, neck, back, arms and legs. Hunching the shoulders will be just one symptom of an overall pattern of misuse throughout his body.
Over a course of lessons the teacher will repeatedly re-organize the pupil’s co-ordination. But the Technique involves more than manipulation. For the pupil’s misuse is the result of a bad habit which he must learn not to indulge in. For this reason, the teacher will help the pupil to direct his use in the new and correct way, and will then instruct him to perform some movement. The pupil will be tempted to employ his habitual pattern of misuse in making the movement. Therefore, on receiving the instruction, the pupil must not respond immediately. Instead he must stop and direct his use in the new and correct way before going on to carry out the instruction.
The pupil learns at the hands of the teacher how to use himself in a more natural way, and how to maintain this new use as he carries out activities. With much repetition the pupil gains confidence in applying this procedure for himself. By taking regular lessons, the pupil develops physically, since the muscles are employed in a better working balance. His sensory awareness becomes more accurate too, so that he perceives better what he is doing. In addition, he gains experience in making choices that run contrary to habit, and this helps him to apply his intelligence more readily in adapting to the changing circumstances of life.
