“It’s about posture!” “It’s about bad backs!” “It’s about imagining a string coming out of the top of your head!”
People seem to have all sorts of ideas about what the Alexander Technique is — often related to thoughts about deportment, sitting up straight, and holding themselves the ‘right’ way. This is a shame because AT is a very much more powerful and subtle tool than this, and it can help you far more than you might think in every area of your life. Alexander work is not fundamentally about posture (though it can improve your posture out of all recognition). It’s not about bad backs either (though it can probably help your bad back a great deal). And it’s certainly not about imagining a string coming out of the top of your head (though many people have confidently told me they believe this is what it involves!).
No. Fundamentally the Alexander Technique is about HABITS. It’s a highly effective way to help us to choose to respond to things differently so that we can make better choices that work more effectively for us — whether we are getting out a chair, sitting at our desk, dancing, or playing a violin concerto!
So what is a habit? We could say it’s a learned response to a ‘trigger’ in ourselves or the world around us which has become automatic through repetition, and which we do without thinking whenever we come across the trigger.
All of us have habits — in fact we couldn’t function without them. But often we have acquired habits which don’t help us. For example many of us habitually hold our breath whenever we are in a situation we perceive to be challenging or stressful. At the very moment when, more than anything, we need to be calm, free and relaxed, we restrict our breathing which further stimulates the bodies stress response and interferes with our natural ease, flow and inner support. Bad move.
So how to change this? One approach, which might seem obvious, would be to consciously try to breathe in challenging situations. If we are holding our breath then breathing should be the answer, right? Well it’s not quite so simple. When we hold or constrict our breath we are putting muscular tension into our system and disturbing its innate organisation. When we then try to breathe we are adding more of the same on top. Breathing is a delicate balance that the system is designed to do by itself. When we try to breathe all we are doing is interfering with this natural breathing pattern and adding even more tension.
What to do then? The answer is surprisingly simple. Rather than trying to breathe we need to learn to not hold our breathe to begin with! We need to become conscious of the very moment we’re about to start holding, and then decide not to do it, so that we remain open, present and free.
There are any number of people who will tell you the ‘right thing to do’. The reason the Alexander Technique is so powerful and effective is because it focuses on what NOT to do instead. Rather than getting us out of a pickle it is about learning to not get into the pickle in the first place! An AT teacher can help you to become aware of the little unconscious habits which interfere with your system being open, relaxed and comfortable and gently coach you towards letting go of them, leaving you focus and energy for the things you really want to do in life — whatever they may be.
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