For a lesson in the Alexander Technique you need to be dressed in comfortable clothing because tightly fitting jeans or skirts will interfere with the freedom of movement.
We will be exploring the habitual patterns underlying movement, or to put it in another way, what is it that you are doing with yourself whilst performing such simple acts as lifting, bending, walking, talking, sitting or eating. Anything which you might unknowingly be doing with your body whilst you are actively engaged can interfere with the result of what it is you wish to achieve and has consequences for the health and strength of your own organism. Using a hands-on guidance with a gentle touch specific to the Alexander Technique, which is often combined with a visual or verbal explanation, I will help you discover easier and more effective ways of moving or reacting to situations than your habitual way.
Rethinking how you go about your daily life, you will learn to notice the patterns which reduce effectiveness, increase tension and stress and which can even be so harmful at times as to cause pain. Gradually you will learn to inhibit these harmful habits and be able to apply the new experience of movement you will have acquired during lessons with the help of the teacher.
A new use of control and intention in one’s simple everyday movements can build a foundation for tackling the more complex activities such as playing musical instruments, brushing up a golf or tennis technique, and the more stressful activities such as public speaking or sitting at a computer all day.
Part of a lesson in the Alexander Technique may take place lying down on a table. Habitual patterns of stressful thoughts and muscular tensions are more easily released in this lying down position, also any changes can more easily be assimilated by the body whilst it is in a lying down position as you will not so quickly and readily return to your habitual movements. You will taught a method for lying down and will be advised to practice it.
The Alexander Technique does not involve any exercises in the usual sense. Outside the lessons themselves your role in working towards an improved functioning of your breathing and postural mechanisms, consists of consciously thinking of yourself as you go about in your daily activities in the same way you are taught during the lessons so as to prevent your habitual harmful movement patterns from returning thereby giving the newly acquired experiences received during the lessons the best conditions in which to flourish and become more readily available.
When you become more familiar with this conscious way of thinking of yourself, you can then start to apply it to specific patterns of misuse or more demanding activities in your particular professional field .
The frequency of lessons at the beginning of any learning procedure is very important, and in the case of the Alexander Technique much more can be achieved if you can attend a lesson at least twice or preferably even three times a week during the first couple of weeks, and a total of ten lessons is a minimum requirement in order for you to be able to make a practical use of what you will have been taught.
