The Alexander Technique-Subtraction, Not Addition
In an Alexander Technique lesson I taught today, my student began by telling me her neck pain felt a little worse this week. When I inquired about it she told me that the physical therapist she’d been seeing added a new exercise for her neck, and it hurt her. Unfortunately, as an Alexander Technique teacher, I hear this story quite a lot. I told her that in my opinion she needs to subtract some things she’s doing rather than adding to it.
In other words, the Alexander Technique’s direction to ‘free your neck’ doesn’t add anything besides the thought. You’re actually subtracting, or reducing something. You’re reducing unwanted, excess tension. Keep in mind that when you tense your muscles, you are shortening them. When you shorten your neck muscles, for instance, you’re compressing the spine. This isn’t helpful for those with neck pain, or back pain, or shoulder pain, or headaches. Also note that this is what many of us do as we sit in front of the computer screen hours a day.
So what does the Alexander Technique suggest you do to help your musculo-skeletal pain, or to make any activity easier? Do less, not more. Try a little more undoing than doing. Extra doing might have been what gotten you into trouble in the first place.
Mark Josefsberg-Alexander Technique NYC
(917) 709-4648
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Great post Mark. I have the same teaching experience all the time - it’s hard, I think, for a lot of people to realize that doing something isn’t necessarily be best strategy for making useful changes.
Thanks Robert. I bet we all see this in one form or another. I thought the same thing when I was going through my neck pain, pre-alexander Technique.
I think we’re trained , in one form or another, to do something to fix our problems. It’s not an easy concept to undo something for the fix.
But, it works. That’s the main point I’d like to get over to people. The Alexander Technique works.
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I have a stiff neck. We say we have a stiff or sore neck, as if someone gave it to us and now it’s ours. In Alexander Technique terms it might be more accurate to say “I’m stiffening my neck.” Of course if you say it that way you sound insane…
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What Is The Best Way To Improve My Posture?
There is really only one way to improve posture, and I can say it in one word: The Alexander Technique. Ok, that’s three words, but one idea.
Most people think they know how to improve posture, but it is not the best way to improve posture, nor is it a permanent way to improve posture. Here’s what most of us know about improving posture: ‘stand up straight!’ ‘Sit up straight!’ We’ve all heard things like ‘suck your stomach in, push your chest out, put your shoulders back, stick your chin back’ etc. This is not the way to improve posture. This is a way to have military posture…
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I think F.M. Alexander (1869-1955), the developer of the Alexander Technique, would be fascinated by the emerging evidence of how thinking affects our brain, how our brain affects our body, and how our body affects our brain. Detailed brain imagery demonstrates that thinking is not a purely mental process; it is physical as well. Measurable, physical changes occur in our brains ‘just’ by thinking. In other words, we don’t just think. We change our brains, in function and structure, with our minds and bodies…
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Mark@MarkJosefsberg.com
(917) 709-4648
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