F.M. Alexander made the connection between the mind and body and designed a method to strip away harmful movement habits.
What is the Alexander Technique?
The human body is actually designed to move with great ease, efficiency and balance. If you observe toddlers, you will see this beautifully upright posture and easy, fluid movement. Unfortunately, over time, different experiences in life cause us to develop unconscious habits that “undo” this natural grace. These faulty habits can be caused by anything: injury or pain (we move differently in order to avoid pain and gradually our bodies adopt that habit), or emotional stress (who hasn’t experienced the grip of tension?).
Frequently, however, it’s simply a result of how we move in our everyday lives: holding a baby on our hip, clenching a phone to our ear with our shoulder, or just spending large parts of our day sitting- in cars, slumped in front of a TV, or at work in front of a computer. Whatever the reason, the Alexander Technique helps us to restore our natural efficiency, ease and grace. It helps us to become conscious of what we are doing, and gives us the tools to correct faulty movement habits that are interfering with our posture, our movement and even our health.
The Alexander Technique can help you to enjoy:
- Improved posture, alignment and balance
- Greater ease and freedom of movement
- Reduced stress and pain
- Improved breathing coordination
- Increased confidence and poise
- Improved kinesthetic awareness and coordination
- Improvement of everyday activities
- Improvement of athletic and artistic performance
Who is F.M. Alexander and what did he discover?
F.M. Alexander (1869-1955) was a Shakespearean actor who was afflicted with chronic laryngitis each time he performed on stage. Determined to discover the reason for his problem and to restore the use of his voice, Alexander spent months observing himself in the mirror. He discovered that the source of his vocal problem was a restriction of the muscles of his neck, which pulled his head back and down on the spine and caused a shortening in his entire torso. This caused him to breathe improperly and to use his voice with strain.
Alexander realized that in order to change the way he habitually used his voice, he had to change the way he thought. By giving himself specific mental directions, Alexander was able to restore the natural relationship between the head and the spine, and as a result, his vocal problems disappeared! Alexander made the connection between the mind and body and evolved a hands-on teaching method designed to strip away harmful movement habits and encourage all of the body’s processes to work efficiently, as an integrated whole.
Watch the video explaining how F.M. Alexander developed the technique.