How Do You Learn It?

The Alexander Technique is taught one on one and also in groups. Weekly lessons from a teacher is the most common way to learn.

Hands-on contact from an Alexander Technique teacher redistributes tension in your body, feeling almost like an energetic transmission, and gradually re-educates your body to move more efficiently by slowly changing ingrained habits of postural support.

A Set of Principles

The Alexander Technique consists of a set of principles that you learn to apply in everyday life - while working at your desk, cooking, exercising, playing your instrument, speaking in front of an audience - in order to prevent strain and injury. Below are the core principles:

Inhibition: The conscious decision not to respond immediately to a given stimulus so as to break down reactive, unconscious behaviors that result in unconscious, excess tension.

Means-whereby: Prioritizing the process over the end result while you are involved in any activity and maintaining this attitude throughout its entire process.

End-gaining: Our tendency to rush and hurry; behaving in a manner where you are more interested in the end result rather than how you are going about achieving it. End-gaining results in excess muscular tension and the Alexander Technique seeks to identify and minimize this habit in all activities.

Head-Neck-Back Relationship: Referred to as “the Primary Control,” this is the dynamic relationship between the head, neck and back that influences our overall quality of movement. When this relationship is not interfered with by excess tension in the neck, overall movement is smoother, lighter and coordinated.

Direction: Felt as a flow of energy or lightness throughout the whole body, direction is the process of using our thoughts to consciously allow release in our muscles. The “sending” of messages from your mind to your body to encourage length, release and spaciousness in your muscles and joints - direction exemplifies the unity of body and mind.

A Re-Education of Feeling

Sensitivity to kinesthetic impressions can fluctuate depending on what we’re doing - and what we’re thinking while we do it. For most of us, we “feel” our bodies only when there is pain or discomfort. We may shift weight from one leg to another and then go back to what we are doing, without much thought.

Organizing Kinesthetic Impressions

The Alexander Technique teaches you how to organize kinesthetic impressions from the body so that you can more keenly perceive changes in weight, position, tension, movement, heaviness, lightness and the relation between them.

Once you are able to sense habits of tension and movement, over time you learn to consciously replace them with freer, lighter ways of being.

Living Consciously

The multi-faceted nature of the Alexander Technique makes it a rich opportunity for growth and self-discovery. While it may seem to be physically-oriented, the nature of being human is really at the heart of the technique. What we think, what we feel, and our moment to moment perceptions of ourselves are reflected in our bodies.

We’re not just adopting the right positions. We’re looking at ourselves and making the choice to change, allowing a more intelligent, efficient organization to come through.

The release of tension becomes a way of seeing ourselves differently. Taking that release and openness into our lives is what makes the Alexander Technique such a powerful too for change.

As children, we had beautiful, upright posture that was easy, fluid and totally connected to the present moment. Eventually the complexity of life’s demands (i.e., stress) take effect and that poise diminishes over time. The experience of pain, stiffness, and difficulty moving, become more and more common.

The Alexander Technique seeks to bring these stress responses to the level of conscious awareness, where they can be observed and changed.

To Schedule a Consultation

Contact Harry by email or phone

harrymhobbs@gmail.com | (813) 245-5155

Consultations last about 15 minutes and are offered at no charge. We’ll discuss your needs, answer questions.