Whenever someone asks me to explain the Alexander Technique, I find myself in a conversation about mind – body dualism.
Nowadays we tend to see a relation between a stressful thought and tension in the neck, or performance anxiety and our instrument technique failing us. However, how much do we think of the mind-body connection when seeking solutions to these everyday problems?
Numerous times over the years, I have tried to find the right exercises that would fix my problems (whether that was neck pain or limitations in piano technique). However, I would then go back to doing exactly the same things that created the problem in the first place. Staring intensely focused on a screen or book, blocking off my environment and any connection to what the rest of myself was doing or needed. Or practicing a difficult passage on the piano over and over again in the same way and once again being surprised and frustrated when it betrays me during a performance (expecting to have the same result I had in practice, even though my mental state was very different).
In an Alexander Technique lesson the teacher and client work together to identify habits/patterns/ideas that aren’t helpful or are getting in the way of us living our lives how we want them. One of the main principles being, we try to recognise how the bigger or smaller everyday struggles are affecting our whole selves, as 𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬.
Working on simple activities together, with mind-body integration, we figure out how the way we 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 and we 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬 affects how we 𝐚𝐜𝐭, 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞, 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭, and overall how we live our lives.
As a result, any change that happens is 𝐧𝐨𝐭 a consequence of the 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲. Joining our compartmentalised selves together, the goal is to discover more 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 and reclaim 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐨, 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬.
To the often asked question whether this work is mental or physical, the answer is:
Yes
[1] Man’s Supreme Inheritance by F. Matthias Alexander (Mouritz, 1996), p. 28.
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