Alexander Technique is something everyone on the planet can use who has a body and a mind.

It is a better way of using yourself in whatever you do, "in which the reflex supports the voluntary and the voluntary does not impede the reflex" (Frank Pierce Jones, Body Awareness in Action, 1987). The tendency most people have is to create extra tension between their head and their spine before and during any activity, thereby starting a typical domino effect of other unnecessary tensions, which interfere with whatever you're trying to do. These become habituated and begin to feel normal. Whether it's walking, picking something up, talking, writing, planting a seed, washing a vessel, or thinking--and all of these activities are psychophysical (mind-body) activities--this pattern reduces optimal functioning and even clouds the senses and clarity of thought. Allowing the reflex poise allows the body-mind system to function optimally, and awareness of sensation is fuller and more accurate, and thinking is clearer.

Alexander was an actor who lost his voice. Doctors' advice didn't help, so he examined himself with the help of mirrors to find out what the problem was. He discovered that he had this pattern of tightening between his head and spine, squishing his voice box, every time before he spoke. He also discovered that he could only change this habit once he let go of ("inhibited") his habitual way of speaking and allowed a new, unfamiliar way of doing of speaking.

He also discovered he could more easily communicate this better way of doing things to others though a gentle touch with his hands guiding people to improved movement.

The Technique is taught by people around the world, mostly for a price that is accessible only to the middle class and only the fairly well-off of those. It is not covered by insurance.

But Alexander intended for the Technique to be available to everyone, and thought it necessary at this stage of humanity's development that we all become conscious of how we move, where we've so far taken things for granted and moved unconsciously.

Those with a more balanced physical-mental lifestyle (those who live in villages doing manual labor) tend to have better coordination, better use of the self, better poise. However, the stresses of modern life affect all of us. And there is an advantage to going from good to better. So even someone who is better coordinated than someone in a more developed/wealthier nation can benefit from consciously appreciating the reflex support they habitually allow in their acitivties and then allowing these to continue to increase in precision and helpfulness.

Information about the Technique can be found on AlexanderTechnique.com, and I will post some more links here.

For people who can't afford a trained teacher to guide them to the hands-on experience of improved coordination, any other person without training will still be able to provide some benefit to the extent that they approach this without any agenda or assumptions, simply trusting their own coordination to communicate what is beneficial and "listening" for well-coordinated movement in the other.

While it is not legal to claim medical benefits for this, relief of symptoms of pain can occur when coordination improves, and more energy is available. A factory in Switzerland, Victorinox, had a %40 increase in productivity when it employed some Alexander Technique teachers for their manufacturing workers, while the workers were also injured less frequently (http://alexandertechnik-schwyz.ch/pdf/Congress%20Paper%20English%20Version.pdf).

The British Medical Journal reported positive benefits from the Alexander Technique (http://www.bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a884).

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