“Poise, alertness, and flexibility - these attributes are our birthright, as demonstrated by every child at play.

"As adults, however, we grow to be hurried, inattentive, and stiff of mind and body. Automatic reactions of movement, posture, attitude, and thinking become so entrenched that we think of them as normal and inevitable. But they can give rise to health problems such as backaches, migraines, and even depression. The Alexander Technique helps us become aware of our unhealthy reactions, and teaches us to function more freely, naturally, and gracefully."
(Alexis Niki, teacher, Paris)

The Alexander Technique is fundamental to all facets of human behavior, too broad to pigeon-hole. So, depending on one’s perspective, each of these descriptions fit:

• A way to relieve chronic pain and stress caused by habitual misuse of the body.
• A means to best respond to a condition that we cannot change - diseases, birth defects, aging, etc.
• A path to wellness as a consequence of how we think, rather than how we medicate.
• A learned method to restore homeostasis.
• A process of self management that empowers one to maintain good health.
• A means of learning how to stop behaving normally, and resume behaving naturally.
• Or simply: “Organized common sense.” – FM Alexander

The Alexander Technique eludes precise definition because it involves a new experience: release from the domination of habit. Because this sensory experience is foreign to us, we lack the words to describe it, but students commonly include “freedom” and “lightness” when telling of their experience.

Initially, the Alexander Technique is appreciated through its indirect consequences. On its most obvious level the Alexander Technique relieves symptoms brought on by tension and stress. When we look more deeply, we uncover the opportunity to explore our psychological, sensory, and spiritual worlds.  So it was that educator/philosopher John Dewey said:

“It is difficult for anyone to grasp its full force without having actual demonstration of the principle in operation. And even then, as I know from personal experience, its full meaning dawns upon one slowly and with new meanings continually opening up... Only when the results of Mr. Alexander’s lessons have changed one’s sensory appreciation and supplied a new standard, so that the old and new condition can be compared with each other, does the concrete force of his teaching come home to one... It is this which makes it practically impossible for anyone to go to him with any idea at the outset beyond that of gaining some specific relief and remedy.”