To perform better
Performers can free up spontaneity, and increase elasticity and fluidity of the body and the nervous system.
The recuperative ability of the body can be enhanced, particularly where repetitive strain is at work, (such as in playing a musical instrument or frequent use of the voice). Stamina and endurance can be systematically developed. By learning to attend to process, one can learn how to get more for less! Performing artists around the world apply the Alexander Technique to their practice.
It is also taught at many performing arts schools and colleges around the world – for example: Juilliard School, New York, USA; Yale University, Connecticut, USA; Royal Academy of Music, London, UK. and many drama schools.
For your health and well-being.
Learning the Alexander Technique can help to prevent or alleviate conditions associated with undue tension or poor posture. These include: many difficulties with coordination and movement; joint and muscle problems; breathing disorders; stress related conditions and particularly back problems and back pain.
It can enhance rehabilitation after operations, injury, or illness, improve management of stress and pain, and provide coping skills for chronic illness and disabilities.
– Psychological difficulties. Anxiety and panic reactions can be greatly helped through learning presence and by learning how to become aware how your nervous system reacts to stimuli. Many people find their anxiety or panic reactions go away after learning The Technique. My first teacher Sydney Holland, who learnt from Alexander himself also overcame extreme anxiety through The Technique.
For learning how to unlearn.
Alexander was a pioneer in the field of learning how to let go of and become free from “bad” mental habits. Others such as Tony Buzan have developed this idea further through tools like the Mind Map.
You too can learn basic techniques that will help you to experience and achieve things you did not think you could. This becomes easy when, like Alexander, we understand and experience how the brain and nervous system operate.
The brain becomes used to thinking in a certain way, it works in a groove, and when set in action, slides along the familiar, well-worn path; but when once it is lifted out of the groove, it is astonishing how easily it may be directed. At first it will have a tendency to return to its old manner of working by means of one mechanical unintelligent operation, but the groove soon fills, and although thereafter we may be able to use the old path, if we choose, we are no longer bound to it. In concluding this brief note on mental habits I turn my attention particularly to the many who say, “I am quite content as I am.” To them I say, firstly, if you are content to be the slave of habits instead of master of your own mind and body, you can never have realized the wonderful inheritance which is yours by right of the fact that you were born a reasoning, intelligent man or woman. (F.M.Alexander, Man’s Supreme Inheritance p65)
The following two videos are highly recommended.
Video: Neuroplasticity
Video: Brain training and neuroplasticity with Tony Buzan and Dr.Jeffrey Schwartz.
For Stammerers/Stutterers.
When mental habits or reaction patterns associated with the organs of speech are “de-constructed” or unlearnt, often the stammer or stutter – reflex disappears with them.
If you have learning difficulties.
When rigid mental habits or unnatural bodily habits are dissolved and unlearnt, often “learning difficulties” disappear with them.
If you want to understand and improve your relationships.
By learning to let go of certain reaction patterns and “let come” new patterns, we can start to understand why Alexander’s Technique helps us to change how we function in human relationships. We can change and deepen the connection with our partner (husband/wife) and others around us.