What is the Alexander Technique?

It is the re-education of movement for mind and body. This is taught hands on with the pupil directly from the teacher. So it is a shared work between pupil and teacher in the activity. We are learning to move with appropriate tension. It's more about doing less of what is inappropriate rather doing something right. It's about balance and poise in movement. The main thing about the Technique is the combination of mindful movement that is thinking in the activity. This is making the connection between mind and body in action.

So what are the principles behind this technique?

The head, neck and back relationship is the first principle of the technique. If our head is not balanced freely on the top of the neck then we will be engaging muscles in an unnecessary way to hold the head up, stiffen or pull it back and down. The head needs to be balanced freely on the top of the neck and anything we do to interfere with this natural relationship between will impede upon the natural use of the other body mechanisms. The body mechanism is designed and programmed to balance ourselves. So if we apply inappropriate tension, then our system will respond, counterbalancing by creating tension in another part of the body. This makes it harder to understand exactly where the tension is originating.
This was one of FM Alexander’s first discoveries. Unnecessary tension created by interference at the neck, is counterbalanced by the rest of the spine to accommodate for the interference. The lower down the spine we go, the created tension, is increased in magnitude as the spine increases in size, creating additional tension throughout the entire body.  The ‘Shaw Method’ of swimming incorporates the Alexander Technique in teaching people how to swim.