With self-reflection and tenacity you can ditch old habits and welcome new ways of living
Have you ever stopped to consider the root cause of an ache or pain? Ever wondered whether your stiff shoulder, bad back, or throbbing headache might be triggered by unconscious, habitual reactions? Physical responses to stress can become so automatic you become oblivious to them. Discomfort or pain can result, appearing to have come from nowhere.
This is where the Alexander Technique comes in. The practice teaches you to stop and take a step back. It can offer an empowering toolbox, enabling you to notice how you react, how you move, how you are. Through repeated observation of your body, it is possible to identify involuntary traits that could cause or be causing a problem. Once acknowledged, these can be unlearned and replaced with preferable habits.
Conscious control
Effortlessness is the key. By gradually increasing your awareness, it’s possible to bring unconscious habits, which might be causing distress, into the conscious realm and thereby control them. Mind and body are seen as inseparable in the Alexander Technique, which has the concept of psychophysical unity (the relationship between your internal and external worlds) at its core.
By avoiding fixed habits, and making constructive, conscious choices, students can return to the ease and balance that’s second nature to children, and move in a more fluid way – as nature intended.
‘We start to exercise a greater level of self-determination,’ says Alexander Technique teacher and professional singer Lindsay. ‘If you have a bad back, say, instead of just accepting it, you question what might be the cause. Choosing how to be leads to greater comfort and ease physically, but also mentally and emotionally.’
Lindsay says that anyone can employ the technique: ‘It’s for anybody and all ages.’ She says if someone has restricted mobility, for example, ‘it can help them be more comfortable within their range of movement’.
Contrary to popular belief, the technique’s focus is not about enforcing posture. ‘Good poise is a therapeutic side effect,’ she says. ‘Posture implies being fixed, and that’s the last thing we are designed for. It’s more about using ourselves well through adaptability, balance, and movement. And that movement might be very tiny, very subtle.’
The idea is to allow your attention to be drawn to what you do and how you do it, to keep it in the spotlight, then allow desirable change to happen intuitively; simply by noticing it’s possible to let go of superfluous tension.
‘We can throw away the habit of a lifetime in a few minutes if we use our brains’– Frederick Matthias Alexander
Dramatic origins
Frederick Matthias Alexander, who devised the technique, had been a promising young actor in Tasmania in the late 19th century until he began to experience vocal difficulties that threatened to undermine his acting career. Doctors could find nothing medically wrong with him, so, for several years, he observed himself using mirrors to establish the cause. He noticed that when he came to give a recital, his neck would tighten, his head tilted back, and he’d gasp for air. He also noted an overall tension in his body.
Through conscious control, he overcame these restrictions. His voice improved, as did his stage presence, and he went on to establish the basic principles of the Alexander Technique. Doctors were so impressed by his results that they referred patients with respiratory problems to him. He soon became known as “The Breathing Man”.
In 1904, Alexander moved to London and started teaching his techniques. His pupils included George Bernard Shaw, the playwright and critic, and writer Aldous Huxley.
Lindsay was introduced to the Alexander Technique aged 14, at the specialist music school she attended, where it was taught in groups. She was struck by its impact on her fellow pupils, one boy in particular. ‘After the teacher had finished working with him, he sat at the piano and all this extraordinary music came out of him,’ she says. ‘It was really dramatic, as though the teacher had gathered up all his energy and given it back to him. It gives me shivers thinking of it.’
Move freely
Improved performance is a welcome consequence of the practice, which can also be a catalyst for positivity in many aspects of daily life. ‘The mental benefits can include increased calmness, clearer thinking, and better choice-making,’ says Lindsay, whose students are often referred by a GP.
Many suffer from headaches, but people also go to her with back or neck problems, muscular issues, or anxiety. ‘It’s not a medical intervention, but it has huge health benefits,’ she says.
Of major importance is the relationship between the head and the rest of the body, and inappropriate tightening of the neck muscles. Allowing the neck to be free is one of the key precepts Alexander pupils learn.
Having the head at an awkward angle, especially for a sustained period, inevitably takes its toll on the spine and on other parts of the body. ‘If the head is out of balance on top of the spine, that will affect everything else in our functioning,’ says Lindsay.
Lying down semi-supine is a way of mindfully relaxing while allowing the body to rebalance. In this position, you have a chance to stop, think, and breathe. You can practice this on your own, but tuition can also help you to develop an awareness of unconscious habits. ‘Students are taken through everyday movements – from standing up to sitting down – and shown how to perform these with no more tension than is needed, and greater ease, flexibility, and freedom,’ says Lindsay.
An Alexander Technique teacher’s role is to steer, not to provide a quick fix. ‘I guide people,’ she says. ‘It’s the pupil who works toward making the changes they want to make.’
People are creatures of habit and it takes self-scrutiny and tenacity to avoid old habits and create new patterns of behaviour. ‘Being unconscious can be easier, even if it means being uncomfortable,’ she says. ‘Being conscious brings responsibility, but with it comes the power to make a profound change.
It’s about unlearning habits we’ve accrued and relearning how to move freely and easily.’ Alexander called this “constructive conscious control”. ‘You’re bringing the unconscious into the conscious realm.’ Lindsay stresses that continuity is important. ‘If you want to learn a musical instrument you don’t get the capability without practice.’ But, like a musician with a masterly ability, she says it’s ‘a technique for being able to live virtuosically’.
‘Through repeated observation of your body, it is possible to identify involuntary traits that could cause or be causing a problem’ – Frederick Matthias Alexander
Practice points
The semi-supine lie down
Lie on your back on a firm surface with your head supported on a few paperback books, knees bent, feet flat to the floor, and allow gravity to help everything release. By raising your head and your knees you avoid compression through your neck and lower back.
Focus on your breath
Sit on a chair with your hips slightly higher than your knees. Make sure you’re on your sitting bones – the bony bits of your pelvis in your bottom. Focus on your breath, breathing out fully and allowing the air to come in through your nose so the air is warmed and filtered.
If you’d like to learn more about the Alexander Technique, there are several publications that might help, including: Body Learning by Michael Gelb; The Alexander Technique for Musicians by Judith Kleinman and Peter Buckoke; The Complete Illustrated Guide to Alexander Technique by Glynn MacDonald; and The Use of the Self by FM Alexander.
Illustration by Irina Perju
