Anyone can learn the alexander technique - and it isnt just for sick people. On the contary many well healthy individuals use the technique to increase their performance in their given job- from actors, to dancers to even doctors.
Do you suffer from repetitive strain injury or carpal tunnel syndrome? Do you have a backache or stiff neck and shoulders? Do you become uncomfortable when sitting at your computer for long periods of time? Are you a singer, musician, actor, dancer or athlete and feel you are not performing at your full potential?
If you have answered yes to any of these questions, the Alexander Technique will be of great benefit to you.
The Alexander Technique is a method which can help you perform all your usual activities without unnecessary tension. It can be applied to sitting, standing, walking, lifting, speaking - to whatever you do during your day.
What one learns in Alexander Technique lessons is a unique and practical means of stopping and changing habits. This learning process allows one's sense of coordination to regain its natural "perspective." The Alexander Technique teacher takes the student through basic movements giving gentle hands-on guidance. Through this guidance, the student experiences more natural and easy coordination without the on-going intereference of habits. Repeating these experiences of natural, fundamental movement stimulates the student's internal coordination mechanisms to become more accurate. This develops his/her ability to choose better coordinated and non-stressful responses to stimuli. The student is able to make lasting habit changes
Guidance & education is given along side the lessons that will give you increased awareness to aid you with a new powerful but graceful movement, to be more alert & focused but without strain, to freely speak, move & breath whilst carrying a calm and confident manner in your everystep.
The Alexander Technique was devised by F. Matthias Alexander (1869-1955). Born in Tasmania, he became a well-known reciter of Shakespearean monologues around the turn of the century. In an attempt to cure his persistent throat problems, which no doctor could find the cause of, he made a number of remarkable discoveries about the human organism and how it functions. He noticed that people's general 'use' of their bodies tends to be unconscious and habitual and that this leads to bad habits in moving and breathing which, when repeated over a long period, are detrimental to the person's general standard of health and functioning. What he also discovered was that the way we think as well as the way we use our bodies determines how our bodies will function for us.
Alexander realised that many of the problems facing people today, such as arthritis, backache and asthma, lack of energy, bad posture and mental problems can be caused by constant mis-use of our bodies. When this has built up over years, it creates a general low standard of health and functioning of our whole being.
So how does it work?
The Alexander Technique is more than a system of exercises or relaxation techniques. It is a way of developing your awareness and using your intelligence to enable your body to become balanced, strong and flexible. In this way it is both a mental & physical process.
As you become aware of your habits of mis-use and, at the same time, learn a simple method to prevent the repetition of these habits in daily activities, then your general standard of functioning will improve. You will be able to prevent further problems occurring and your body is given the maximum opportunity to restore itself to good health.
The Technique is not a therapy designed to 'cure' but a teaching method which offers you a means - by awareness in activity - to raise your general standard of health, body balance and co-ordination and then maintain it for the rest of your life. In this way the Technique is a 'Way of Being or Living' not just exercises which are done say once a day.
