“How can I incorporate the Alexander Technique into my life?” I hear this question, and versions of it, frequently at Alexander Technique lessons. It’s really a great question and gets to the heart of the matter of the benefits of the Alexander Technique.
The Alexander Technique is done as you think about it. If you’re thinking about the principles of the Alexander Technique, you’re doing the technique, or you’re practicing the technique, or you’re performing the technique, or you’re applying the technique, or you’re incorporating the Alexander Technique into your life.
As an Alexander Technique teacher I emphasize awareness of initiating movement; how you start actions like moving your hands, initiating walking, so…

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…

The Alexander Technique can have a huge, positive impact on pain, and I know this from personal experience. The Alexander Technique got me out of the severe neck pain I was in, and now I see the same results over and over as I teach Alexander Technique lessons in NYC to people suffering from back pain, neck and shoulder pain, hand pain. We don’t realize that we’re causing our own pain by the way we use our bodies (poor posture, added stress). The good news is that the Alexander Technique shows us a way out from this pain. It puts us back in control…

Alexander Technique Directions
I wish to free my neck … so that
My head can move forward and up…so that
My torso can lengthen and widen and…
My legs can move away from my torso and…
My shoulders can release out the sides.
Alexander Technique directions act as verbal, or neuro-linguistc cues. They tell us where we want to go, which is often upward, outward, into expansion. Up, down, and out. Head up, feet or sit bones down, shoulders out, legs away…

“A correct position or posture indicates a fixed position, and a person held to a fixed position cannot grow, as we understand growth. The correct position today cannot be the correct position a week later for any person who is advancing in the work of reeducation and coordination.

F.M. Alexander- Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual

During Alexander Technique lessons, people frequently sit up straight or move their head around and ask: is this right?” I answer differently in different situations, but the real answer might be: No. I don’t say that because the…

The Alexander Technique has been described as a reeducation technique or psycho-physical reeducation. It is also a technique to be overlearned, and not only because you learn it over other things (bad habits of either movement or stillness), but when it comes to the Alexander Technique we need to be overeducated; we need to overlearn it so that we can use it under duress, much like a musician practices over and over to be able to execute music under stress…

On my subway ride to teach some Alexander Technique lessons at the American Center for the Alexander Technique in Mahattan, I noticed a man who could not have been more stooped over. As an Alexander Technique teacher I was particularly aware of how he was seated, reading the paper, his head not very far from his knees. His face was quite tense, and had a scowl I suspected was habitual. He seemed to ‘have the weight of the world on his shoulders…

Many Alexander Technique teachers are slumpers, or former slumpers. My name is Mark and I’m a slumper. Slumping was my habit before I became an Alexander Technique teacher, and it will be my habit forever. Although …

New York Magazine asked me to write a few sentences on the Alexander Technique for the January 18, 2010 issue. The article is entitled: ‘50 Steps To Simple Happiness.’ Included in the few sentences I was to give instructions about the Alexander Technique, and when to ‘do’ the Alexander Technique. Yikes… When to do the Alexander Technique? When not to do the Alexander Technique would save words!

The Alexander Technique offers a different kind of posture training, a different kind of posture.You can apply the Alexander Technique to any situation. You can be more easeful, with less tension and compression. You will look like you have better posture.