Rachael Hunt
Alexander Technique Teacher
Paris 20e
F. Mathias Alexander
What is it exactly?
Repeated and unconscious actions have a negative effect on us.
Just one hour at the computer is known to cause back and neckaches, not to mention strain on the hands and eyes.
And what if we spend all day in front of the screen, as many of us have to?
The Alexander Technique helps us to recognise and overcome habits acquired over the years, mainly due to the constraints of modern life.
We can change these recognised patterns of over or undertensing, e.g.
- collapsing from standing to sitting
- straining the neck and eyes at the computer
- hunching over
through a simple process of training ourselves to stop, think momentarily then adequately adjusting our response to the stimuli with which we are confronted.
"you translate everything, whether physical or mental or spiritual, into muscular tension"
FM Alexander
How it works...
In order to develop a better awareness and thus a more refined control of ourselves, the Alexander teacher observes the pupil and instructs them both verbally and through light touch whilst they are doing everyday actions such as:
-walking
-sitting down/standing up
-speaking
-typing/writing etc.
Between the sessions, the pupil starts to notice certain habits and becomes more attentive to way in which they carry out actions and react to stimuli.
Some of the things that become more obvious are:
- unnecessarily raising and tensing the shoulders whilst sitting or walking
- overtensing of the jaw
- using too much muscular force in the neck, arms and hands whilst cooking/typing/lifting etc.
After a number of lessons (the number depending on the pupil), the Alexander Technique will help you rediscover and permanently adopt a more natural posture and way of moving as well as a better mental and physical presence.
Alexander was a Shakespearean actor who, after developing his technique, left his native Tasmania for London at the turn of the 20th Century.
Faced with the prospect of losing his voice completely, he looked for a solution in medicine but found no doctor able to help him.
Not wanting to give up his profession (and passion), he began to study his posture and movements meticulously.
Alexander discovered that human movement is organized around a group of reflexes he called "the primary control" that operate in the relationship of the head, neck and back, and create the basic conditions of our upright balance and poise.
Through a long observation of human function, he established a set of principles identifying how our poise operates within us, and how it can be restored.
Alexander saw free, upright posture (“poise”) as a species-defining endowment of evolution (as Darwin did), and something that normal children possess in their first years. However, natural functioning is generally lost or compromised during adolescence and adulthood due to the pressures of life, particularly our culture.
Who was FM Alexander?
It is taught today in :
- Hewlet Packard
- Victorinox
- Merck Pharmaceuticals
- St. George's Medical School,London
- Microsoft
- Juilliard School
- The BBC