A Brief History of the Alexander Technique
The Alexander Technique was developed by Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869–1955), an Australian actor and reciter who began to lose his voice during performances. Although he consulted doctors and voice teachers, no one could explain why this was happening.
Alexander realised that his voice problems only occurred while he was performing. Rather than asking what was wrong with his voice, he began asking whether he might be doing something that was contributing to the problem.
Through years of careful observation and experimentation, he discovered that unconscious habits of thinking and movement were interfering with his natural coordination. By learning to prevent these habitual patterns, his voice gradually improved.
Alexander spent the rest of his life developing and teaching what became known as the Alexander Technique, work that continues to be taught throughout the world today.
Alexander's discoveries began with a willingness to observe himself and ask a different kind of question. Learning the Alexander Technique begins in much the same way.
Some Notes on Learning the Alexander Technique...
A Simple Question
“What is the most important question we can ask ourselves when learning the Alexander Technique?”
How am I sitting?
How am I standing?
How am I walking?
How am I using my phone?
How am I getting out of a chair?
How do I respond when I become anxious or rushed?
It is often how we go about these kinds of everyday activities that determines whether they become easy and efficient or tiring and effortful.
Heads and Bodies
We are vertebrates – animals with a head and a spine. Our head is poised on top of our body. It is surprisingly heavy, weighing around 5 kg (11–12 lbs).
Our head leads and our body follows.
We can see this clearly when we watch other animals move. Watch a dog, cat or horse responding to something in its environment. The eyes look, the head moves and the body follows.
Alexander came to regard the poise of the head in relation to the body in movement as fundamental to our overall coordination and functioning. In the Alexander Technique, this relationship of the head and body is often referred to as the primary control.
Developing a More Accurate Picture of Ourselves
Most of us learnt a little anatomy at school, but we were rarely encouraged to apply that knowledge to ourselves in a practical way.
Even a few simple discoveries about how we are put together can make a surprising difference to the way we move.
Where Does My Head Balance?
People often don’t know where the head balances on top of the spine.
It is around the same level as our ears.
A clearer picture of this relationship can make everyday movements easier and more coordinated. Where Is My Spine?
We may imagine the spine as a straight rod somewhere near the back of the body.
In reality, it is a strong, curved and flexible weight-bearing structure that lies much deeper within the torso.
Where Are My Hip Joints?
The hip joints are in a different place from where we sometimes think they are.
Where Do My Arms Attach to My Torso?
Many of us imagine our arms are attached to our bodies at the shoulder.
In fact, the only bony attachment of each arm to the torso is where the collarbone meets the breastbone.
A clearer picture of this relationship can make reaching and using the arms feel lighter and more connected.
End-Gaining
Much of what we do every day has a purpose. We get out of a chair because we want to go somewhere. We pick up our phone because we want to read a message. A musician picks up their instrument in order to play.
We have desires, intentions and goals that we want to pursue, which give direction to our lives and activities.
But sometimes we can become so focused on achieving what we want that we lose awareness of how we are going about it.
We hurry on, using unnecessary effort or falling automatically into familiar and unhelpful habits.
Alexander called this end-gaining: becoming so focused on the result that we pay too little attention to the means by which we get there.
Habits and Change
Many of us develop habits of thinking, moving and living that become so familiar we are no longer aware of them.
Some of these habits are helpful.
Some may no longer serve us and could be contributing to unnecessary effort and discomfort.
Non-Doing
Most of us have things in our lives that we would like to change. We may know exactly what we want to do differently. We may have thought about it carefully, made a decision and even created a plan. And yet, when the moment comes, we find ourselves doing the same thing we have always done.
Alexander’s answer was non-doing (or what he called inhibition). He described this as being able to receive a stimulus,
“and refusing to do anything immediately in response”.
(F. M. Alexander, The Use of the Self)
When Change Feels Wrong
Our familiar way of doing something often feels ‘right’ to us, simply because it is so familiar.
When we changes the way we do something, and act in a new and previously unknown way our experience may initially feel unfamiliar, strange, or even “wrong”.
Alexander called this faulty sensory appreciation (or awareness).