Alexander Technique
By Jenny Daisley
F Mathias Alexander (1869 - 1955) was motivated to develop
his way of working to improve mind and body co-ordination
by his own respiratory and vocal problems. As a child he
was not expected to live. As a youth he was educated at
home because he was too ill to attend school. When he became
a reciter on the Victorian stage he frequently lost his
voice. He tried everything that was suggested by medical
and other practitioners of the day, even re-maining totally
silent for two weeks, but to no avail. Then he began a seven
year long, detailed study of what he was doing with his
body which prevented his voice from flowing. And so he discovered
and developed the technique which bears his name. It is
a technique to be learned, not a therapy to be given. Its
practitioners are teachers and those who seek to find out
more about it are pupils. But often the process of re-education
leads to a cure of some ailments.
Who seeks Alexander lessons?
The majority of pupils (about 65-70 per cent) come because
they have pain of one sort or another, most frequently back,
neck or shoulder pain. These pupils usually also report
stress and tension.
The next main group (about 25 per cent) are those who
perform: actors, musicians, dancers, athletes and sports
enthusiasts, both amateur and professional.
The remainder are people who feel that they need some boost
to help them take steps in their development as individuals,
to take more charge of their lives in some way.
The Alexander Technique aims to help people to rid themselves
of habits in the way in which they use their bodies which
may be harmful to health and well-being.
What is the Alexander Technique and how does it
work?
In Alexander lessons we are working mainly with the kinaesthetic
sense. The experienced cook knows the ‘right’
thickness of a batter, the nurse knows the tightness of
a bandage, the driver knows the pressure on the pedals to
achieve a certain result. In one way in Alexander work we
are helping people to be more economical in the effort that
they put into doing things. To begin to achieve this, pupils
first have to observe how they do things now, decide which
activities they might do in a better way and try to put
the new and better way into effect.
Without moving, observe how you are reading this passage
now.
Let’s assume that you are sitting. Notice first of
all how your body is balanced. Is the weight evenly distributed
or is it more on one sitting bone (ischial tuberosity) than
on the other?
Where are your feet? Do they support your legs? Are they
tucked under the chair or round each other? Do you notice
any pressure points? What about your back? Is it curving
laterally as you perhaps rest an elbow somewhere? Does it
curve quite a bit in the upper spine as you read? If you
note your observations you are almost certain to discover
some ways in which you are using your body right now, which
conflict with its design.
People often sit slouched with pressure on the coccyx,
slanting to one side, causing the muscles of one side to
work much harder, with excess of pressure on crossed legs
cutting off the blood supply or nervous system. Now move
(if you have resisted the temptation) and sit in what you
would consider to be a more balanced way. Stay there for
a few moments as you read and see how it feels.
Consider any piece of machinery or equipment, if it is
used badly or not for the purpose for which it was designed,
it is likely to suffer excessive wear and tear. It is the
same with our bodies. If they are not used as designed,
they wear in the wrong places. But most of us were not taught
about the design of our own bodies.
If we can use our bodies in the way in which they are designed
we will find that we make less effort. Once we have retrained
ourselves, the wear and tear on muscles, ligaments, bones,
joints, etc will be reduced. But it is difficult to change
old habits! Old habits are comfortable and feel ‘right’.
Try another experiment. Fold your arms in whatever way
you normally do. Now look at them. Which hand comes upwards
into the crook of your elbow? Now fold them the opposite
way. What happens? For a few people it is easy, but most
have to stop and think and when it is done in the opposite
way, it feels ‘odd’, ‘uncomfortablc’
or ‘not right’. So here we see two barriers
that people meet in themselves when they try to do something
differently. They have to stop the old habit, which is ingrained
and automatic, and replace it with something which is conscious
and makes better use of the structure of the body.
Alexander used the word inhibition to describe the stopping
part of the process and he devised a set of basic instructions
to enable the new movement to be made with the best possible
use of the body and mind. He eliminated the use of the word
‘right’ in this sense, because of the dangers
of trying to achieve for example a ‘correct’
way to sit down. Once people thought that they could do
it ‘correctly’ they would give up trying to
improve.
Let us suppose, for example, that you decide to change
the way in which you bend to pick things up. First you have
to remember each time that you bend that you are not going
to do it in your old automatic way. You have to stop or
inhibit. Then you have to have a clear and accurate picture
of the new way. This is where Alexander’s set of instructions,
‘directions’ he called them, come in. They enable
you to free your joints and release your muscles in such
a way as to make the movement flow accurately according
to your intention and with economy of effort. To begin with
it is difficult to trust your sensory awareness, it is so
used to the old patterns. That is where the Alexander teacher
comes in. at your experiment. How are you sitting now? Have
you reverted back a bit to your old pattcrn? Are you feeling
a strain staying in a new pattern? (release it if this is
so). Did you forget what was happening in your body as you
concentrated on what you were reading?
What happens in the Alexander lesson?
Alexander teachers are trained by means of a three year,
full time course at a registered training centre. This training
is governed by the professional association, the Society
of Teachers of the Alexander Technique.
The teachers use their hands in a very gentle way to assist
the pupil in releasing excess muscle tension. Learning the
directions of freeing joints and lengthening and widening
the body is encouraged through the teachers’ hands
and conversation. Some parts of the lesson may be conducted
lying down on a table so that the teacher is able to effect
greater release in areas where it is needed. It is advisable
for pupils to wear loose and comfortable clothing during
the lesson.
The main part of the lesson is concerned with re-educating
the kinaesthetic awareness and applying this to how the
pupil undertakes day-to-day activities, such as walking,
standing, sitting, bending, picking up and carrying, sitting
at a desk, or playing an instrument, if this is appropriate.
Pupils learn the basic principles of stopping old habits,
getting a new intention clear and directing their bodies
to achieve the movement in the best possible way. Attention
is constantly paid to the relationship between the head,
neck and back, as it is in this area that most people today
have too much tension, affecting blood supply and the nervous
system.
To begin with, the work feels strange. For most people it
is pleasantly relaxing and after a lesson they say they
feel ‘calmer’, ‘as if my body is lighter’,
‘more able to move easily’. In the first lessons
the strangeness relates to the new ways in which the body
is poised and moving. If you were to decide to brush your
teeth with your toothbrush in the opposite hand, it would
take quite a few days for you to remember to do it each
time and probably several weeks to become as proficient
with the opposite hand. And so it is over a course of lessons
(average 25-30 lessons) that pupils begin to develop greater
sensory awareness and a new confidence in their kinaesthetic
ability. Gradually the teacher becomes less the teacher
and more the helper or catalyst for the pupils, as the pupils
learn to apply the Alexander Technique increasingly in their
daily lives.
For most people the unhelpful body habit patterns begin
to be visible from age three or four onwards. So it is years
of habits that the Alexander work is trying to change. Once
people learn the basic principles it is a lifetime’s
work developing them and applying them to more and more
situations and with greater subtlety, referring back to
a teacher only for the occasional ‘top up’ or
refresher.
Can the Alexander Technique cure people?
It sets out to re-educate. As new ways of using the body
become established, various parts of the body gain a greater
freedom. Breathing, circulation, digestion and elimination
are improved, with the resultant benefits. Applying the
principles to the way we use our thinking and feelings as
well as to what we do may also contribute considerably to
our state of well-being. Some Alexander teachers will help
pupils to explore the technique in relation to thinking
and feelings. For most of us ill health at some points in
our lives is normal — we can expect it. Working in
an Alexander way gives us a way of coping with our reaction
to the situation.
