Alexander technique – principles
The Alexander Technique was first developed in the 1890s by Frederick Matthias Alexander, who found that, as an actor, he was straining his voice during performances and re-educated himself not to do this. The Technique was the result of his researches.
The Technique educates a person’s sense of proprioception, which is what we use to assess our own body location and weight and to judge the effort necessary for moving any part of ourselves. All Alexander teachers advocate the value of effortlessness and practical structure.
Alexander Technique teachers believe that humans have a built-in proprioceptive blind spot, that is to say, we all become habituated to repeating any response – or we’re conditioned to do what we always do. Repeating the same movement leads us to create habits as we adapt to circumstances. These habits contain both deliberate and non-deliberate responses such as physical movements, as well as coping and learning strategies like keeping our keys by the front door, or ducking behind a hedge to avoid our nosy neighbour!
Such habits have value, they help us meet a given stimulus or interpretation of circumstances with a ready-made reaction – the light turns red, we apply the brakes. However, as we mix one habit with another, we may train ourselves to also repeat unwanted side effects from answering more than one master – the light goes red, we slam on the brakes and curse, our partner tells us off and we have an argument! These are the tensions, over-compensations and stresses we don’t need.
The Alexander Technique teaches us to carry intent into action with reasoning and constructive thinking technique, that get us over our past habits.
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