The Principles
Learn about the core principles that shape the way I work.
When we see our reflection and notice that we are stooping over, when we feel a loss of balance or we feel stiff joints or aches and pains we often think its simply because we are aging or it’s because we are stressed or uncomfortable any many other reasons besides.
A man named F.M Alexander started a path of investigation which led him to question the inevitability of this, he came to the conclusion that the way we use our bodies, in fact the way we use our entire selves, mind and body is the root cause of many of the problems that we associate with stress, office furniture, aging and well….modern living.
If Alexander’s expression “the way we use ourselves” seems strange at first then remember that in a different context a trainer or instructor might say “use your hand to turn the handle” or something like that, Alexander talked of the “use of the self” instead of the “use of the hand” because he came to realise that you have to address the whole person, this is not sentiment but reflects our interconnected nature.
A key point that Alexander discovered was that we are better designed than we think, the patterns of what he called ‘good use’ are not something new or something that he invented but are something that most people had as infants, unfortunately these patterns have been obscured by newer unhelpful patterns, unconsciously strengthened them every time they are used.
Alexander dedicated his life to the exploration of what happens after infancy when we lose our poise and balance and ease of movement, he observed that in nature animals rarely follow patterns of use that result in bad backs, even a household cat rarely does anything that results in discomfort or compromises its slinky fluidity.
Look at the effortless poise of the infant above
Alexanders explorations led him to conclude that humans have an ability to override natural patterns of good use, this flexibility means we can do great things like learn to dance, ride a bicycle or play the drums, activities that nature did not anticipate and that no cat can emulate but it also means that we have the ability to unwittingly modify our patterns of movement in a way that compromises us and eventually results in crumpled posture, stiff necks, compromised walking patterns and worse. Ideally what we want is to take advantage of our flexibility to play a violin or to pick strawberries and yet not corrupt healthy patterns of use. To see what I mean take a look at the man and his infant son below, they are both picking strawberries but they are using themselves completely differently.
Take a moment to see if you can spot some differences in the way that they are using themselves…
Here is just one suggestion to get you started, the line of the mans back is more curved than infants and his head is pulled back so there is a noticeable ‘kink’ in his spine, an area of tension which also compromises the strength of his back.
There are many sources of information about safe bending for people with bad backs and following advice from a good source may help you change your patterns and may find that this satisfies your needs. However Alexander took it a lot further than this, I am sure we are all aware that simply copying the ‘shape’ of a person who is very poised may give you the same ‘shape’ but it does not give you the full benefits. The Alexander Technique is not the same as following health and safety guidance for protecting your back, it affects your patterns, mental and physical at a much deeper level.
I would like to add that in the western context Alexander really did discover something new, he was one of the first explorers in the area we now call somatics, however eastern practices have been around at lot longer and we so we find things in common, this is reassuring. The way I like to express it is that in the east and more recently in the west there have been different explorers of what we might call human potentiality; these explorers have different perspectives and character but they are all fishing around the same pond so it’s not surprising if they catch similar fish.