How does the Alexander Technique work?

The Alexander Technique works by training us to become more aware of ourselves and so to avoid those unconscious habits which, more often than not, are the cause of our troubles.

If we spend hours hunched over our desks at school or at work, then we probably also hunch over our steering wheels, dining tables, shopping trollies etc. If we had a difficult adolescence feeling tense and awkward much of the time, then high levels of muscular tension may still be part of us many years later. If we always carry our heavy briefcase in the same hand, then the chances are we have one shoulder higher than the other even when our hands are empty.

This is not as a result of us deciding to hunch, carry tension and so on. Instead, these ways of holding ourselves have become habits. We don't even know we are doing them. And so although we can correct our bad habits for a moment or two, as soon as our attention is diverted, the habits come back.

The Alexander Technique teaches us to become better acquainted with ourselves, with what we are doing and how we respond in different circumstances. It gives us the ability to choose, consciously, different ways of responding that use less tension and more ease. And ultimately it teaches us to take responsibility for how we are not just in our bodies but in the whole of our lives.

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