The Alexander Technique – Isn’t that about posture?
By Annie Kaszina BA Ph.D. MSTAT

For a lot of people, answering the question: ‘What do you do?’ is quite simple. They can state: ‘I am an X or a Y’ or else ‘I work in Z or W’ and that will be enough to give some idea about their working life. When an Alexander teacher answers the question with the words: ‘I teach the Alexander Technique’ or near equivalent, the other person tends to look slightly troubled and say: ‘That’s about posture isn’t it?’ And the fun starts. For an Alexander teacher, it isn’t about posture; not really. However if the AT teacher goes down the road of explaining the difference between posture and poise, the other person’s eyes will swiftly glaze over. There’s also the fact that the word ‘posture’ is:

• guaranteed to make you feel bad – because you know that your posture is pretty awful ; after all your mother and countless others have spent years telling you so.
• not your top priority. You may be in pain a lot of the time and you have a sneaking suspicion that posture might have something to do with it; but you want the pain sorted out. Standing with your chest out and your chin up, is a bit like adding insult to injury: it doesn’t make the pain go away and it’s hard work.

So what is the Alexander Technique (AT) about? For me, it’s about helping people to become pain-free, feel better, look better, and perform daily activities better. How does that relate to posture? Not at all – if we’re talking about the stereotypical, sergeant major concept of posture. But perhaps we need define what we mean by posture. In Alexander terms, the posture you have is the shape that your body has got into, in response to what you do with your life. What you do at work, the sport or other activities you do, the stresses you have, the injuries you may have suffered, all contribute to put you in the physical shape you are in, just as they colour your mental state. Generally, people attempt to change the shape their body is in, without knowing how to do it, where to start, or what effect it will have on the pain. You know the end result you would like to achieve, but you don’t know the steps you need to take to get there. It’s a bit like trying to drive from Braintree to Clovelly, without having any directions. It’s quite possible; it’s not even difficult; but only if you have the requisite information. Generally, you attempt to get rid of the pain through medication and/or physical activity or else you take your body to a professional to sort out. But, at the end of the day, you still carry on living in that body in the same way. The dictum that if you keep on doing the same old things, you will keep on getting the same old results is, unfortunately, true. Alleviating the symptoms is one thing. Addressing the problem is another. The thing is, not only do you keep on doing the same old things physically, but they are so much a part of you, that you don't even know that there might be other ways. The Alexander Technique helps you first to see what you are doing, and then to discover ways of changing it that can reduce or eliminate the pain. Suppose you suffer from a skin complaint and you do a load of washing up, because it has to be done. You’re working on limited information, in set ways, without any thought for other possible solutions and without considering the damage to your skin. If you could just switch off automatic pilot, you could start to ask yourself whether you could use gloves, or get it done by someone else. The AT teaches you to look at things with new eyes. It also enables you to reduce muscular tension and take a great deal of the effort out of movement. Over a number of Alexander lessons, a lot of Alexander pupils report that their pain largely disappears. They also say that on occasions when they are in pain, they know what they can do to keep it at bay. As you learn to divest yourself of physical tensions, your mental stress level falls, and your body can release out of its habitual shape or ‘poor posture’. As this happens your back becomes straighter, you stand taller, your head starts to be held high and you will look and feel better and calmer. Family and friends may well tell you that your posture has improved with the AT, but you will enjoy a raft of physical and mental benefits.