KAROLINA GLAB
PIANIST/ PIANO TEACHER
ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE
The Alexander Technique®
Have you already observed in your activities the habits that stay in a way for your best performance?
Do you experience pain or discomfort in your body, that is difficult to relieve?
Maybe you are a musician, an actor, a sportsman, or you spend hours at your office-desk, or if you are simply concerned about your good health and looking for a deeper understanding of yourself and improving the quality of your life - the Alexander Technique can help you!
What`s the Alexander Technique...?
The Alexander Technique is a method that aims at reestablishing and strengthening the body-mind connection. It includes "re-education" of our behaviour and reactions to stimuli in order to find a balanced way of living.
The Alexander Technique helps us to identify the habitual patterns that lead our lives and, thanks to means called inhibition and directions, to rediscover the space and mobility in the body, improving breathing, enhancing creativity, spontaneity and simply facilitating our daily activities (primary control).
Inhibition : using this term, Alexander was describing a conscious decision to postpone or suspend a reaction to a given stimulus, in order to give oneself time and possibility to choose the best, (hopefully) healthy reaction. In his book "Use of the Self" we can conclude that we have always at least three choices: to react, not react, or do something else! :)
Directions : the mental orders sent to the nervous system (just as we normally do, indeed!) that aim at rebalancing the weight of the main body parts: the head, the neck and the back (primary control). Finding an optimal coordination helps to get back the body to its natural dimensions and to avoid rigidity, tensions and shortening in the stature.
The basic directions stated by FM Alexander were:
1. Let the neck be free...
2...to let the head go forward and up...
3...to let the back lengthen and widen...
4...all together and one after another.
The primary control : with this term, Alexander referred to a dynamic, natural and healthy relation between the head, the neck and the back. This is not a "posture" - we are looking for a dynamic balance, that is alive and changing! A healthy person is born with this natural relation (hence the term "primary"), but unfortunately, in most cases, the civilization, sedentary lifestyle, and neglecting of the holistic approach to a human development, cover our bodies and minds with the layers of unnecessary tensions, imbalances and blockages.