Soft focus. A wider view. The big picture. Draw back. Back off. Hold up. Pause, wait, stop, relax, ease up, chill. Lengthen. Widen. Take a step back and see the whole rather than just the parts. Alexander Technique, especially in NY. Sometimes too much involvement can draw us in, and down, collapsing into ourselves. Too much involvement; too much riding on it. Even our jaw muscles tighten and shorten. Too important, as if it’s life or death. It makes us want to lean in, anyway we know how; usually by shrinking, compressing. Breathing shallows. We get tense, and then we stay tense. It happens to us someplace, then anyplace, then everyplace. Some times to almost all the time. Then it becomes “that’s the way I am”, or, “I’m a tense person”…

Sometimes in the early stages of Alexander Technique lessons, I might ask a student to ‘do nothing’ while they’re lying on the massage table, or to ‘let go’ as I move their arm…I’m asking the Alexander Technique student (we’re all Alexander Technique students) to inhibit. This isn’t inhibition as in suppressing; it more has to do with stopping your initial response giving you a chance to do something in a new, conscious, beneficial way…

The Alexander Technique and meditation can be beautifully interwoven. Since the Alexander Technique is a ‘pre-technique’, using it before meditating can enhance your meditation practice. The Alexander Technique can help shorten the time it takes to get to the state or tone you want when you meditate, and help you stay in that place longer when you’re through. It can help make the line between meditating and not meditating more blurry. Your meditation practice is augmented…

In teaching the Alexander Technique here in NYC, I often use the words ‘let’ and ‘allow’, as in ‘allow’ your neck to be free or ‘let’ your head lead your spine into length. During Alexander Technique lessons I might say ‘allow’ your entire ribcage to contract and expand as you breathe and ‘allow’ your sit bones to release down into the chair. ‘Let’ your torso gently spiral as you walk, ‘allow’ your jaw to release, and countless other examples of allowing… letting…
If we need to allow things to happen, it stands to reason that we unconsciously disallow them from happening…

Often at the start of an Alexander Technique lesson here in New York City, I’ll ask ‘how did it go this week?’ A few responses: ‘I did the Alexander Technique, but not all the time,’ or, ‘I thought about the Alexander Technique, but not all the time.’ To me, these are honest answers, but does anyone think of the Alexander Technique all the time? Would we want to be thinking about it constantly, and thinking of nothing else? Is that any way to enjoy a movie, a book or a companion?
The Alexander Technique definitely becomes part of life, and new, more beneficial habits are formed. Even without directly thinking about the Alexander Technique, we’ve changed. We begin to have less tension with everything we do. We sit at the computer, stand, walk, bend, play the bassoon and bowl in a different way without the Alexander Technique being in the forefront of our thinking…

When speaking of musculoskeletal problems, those are five of the most depressing, disheartening, unintentionally cruel and very often untrue words a health professional can say….as an Alexander Technique teacher in NYC, part of my job is to help people reverse or prevent damage, and I see back pain, neck pain etc. minimized and eliminated all the time, every day. People get better, and better, and better. The power of the human body (and mind, and spirit) to rejuvenate is well known. People start the healing process the minute they stop hurting themselves. The Alexander Technique teaches you how to stop hurting yourself; how to stop the damage, so you can start getting better…