What is the Alexander Technique?

"Alexander Technique" is the name that F. M. Alexander (1869-1955) discoveries are known by today. These discoveries are a tool for developing the art of constructive, conscious living. They can support us moving towards the realization of our individual potentiality.

The work is firmly based on the premise that our co-ordination is the deepest and truest expression of who we are being, and that, to redirect our energy towards our aspirations, requires a deep and profound knowledge of how we are co-coordinating ourselves as we do that.

Alexander's discoveries are nothing if not practical and concrete. These lofty ideals are immediately translated into an exploration of the manner of our doing ordinary, everyday activities. In the exploration of these activities, it quickly becomes apparent to us that the quality of these movements is dependant upon the quality of our awareness, our attention, our manner of thinking.

For this work, three important discoveries of Alexander come into play.

When exploring Alexander's discoveries, the primary object of attention is towards what Alexander called our "primary control", which can be understood as being how our head movements are affecting the rest of our co-ordination. Alexander discovered that our head movements govern vertebral co-ordination, which in turn governs the quality of all our movements.

The second object of our attention is remembering that this is a perfect mechanism - therefore our sole intention is to become aware of how we interfere with its usage, and in turn give up this interference, which then results in free and flexible movement.

The third object of our attention is to realize that if we are successful in the first two, the result will be an entirely new experience not in keeping with anything we have experienced before. We therefore resist trying to be "right" based on our old idea of "right" and enjoy the new experiences we are having.

The work is often thought of as a 'bodywork', but, if anything, it is more of a 'mindwork'. The primary emphasis is on the quality of attention as the determining factor for the quality of movement. It is the premise of this work that all beliefs, ideas, memories, visions, attitudes and the like are neuromuscular activities, and all can be influenced and redirected at that level of intervention.

The work itself is stunningly simple and everything you ever have to know can be demonstrated by a good teacher in about 5 minutes. Of course the learning potential is huge, but it is mainly about your own unnecessary habits, your own way of living that creates unhappiness for you. The work itself is quite simple, it our own Selves that obscure it.

Reduced to its essence, Alexander work tells us that we are already OK, we are already perfect. We've just forgotten the fact, and this work is a way to remember ourselves, to meet our true Self. It is a way to discover the wonderful, beautiful potentiality that exists, waiting to bloom, within us all.