The Technique can enhance our general well-being & change the vitality of both body and mind
THERE IS EVIDENCE TO SUGGEST THAT THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE CAN BENEFIT YOU BY:
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improving posture and spinal alignment
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reducing back pain on average by 86% (source: British Medical Journal)
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reducing neck pain by at least 31% (source: Annals of Internal Medicine)
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increasing breathing capacity and energy
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improving balance and co-ordination
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improving performance and vocal quality
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helping to manage stress and anxiety related conditions
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The AT is in the NICE guidelines for Parkinson's
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The AT is recommended by the NHS
Postural patterns are intimately connected to our emotions and mental state; thinking affects your body and the use of your body affects the state of your mind. Only by looking at the two systems together can you bring yourself to balance.
The use of light touch and Alexander Technique instructive thinking, will bring awareness to the use of your body and set patterns of moving. It is used by actors, musicians and corporate management to perform efficiently and spontaneously and also in the treatment of chronic illness or conditions due to stress. This is ultimately a system of self analysis which leads to self care in every day functioning.
There are many health benefits to learning the Technique but it can notably help with bringing an overall sense of well-being, reduced pain and stress levels.
Improve your posture, mobility, confidence and help ease your pain.
WHY ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE WORKS WHEN OTHER THERAPIES FAIL:
The Alexander Technique is a method of teaching people how to use themselves better in all activities. This is shown to reduce back and neck pain, balance problems and is a way of helping you to be more in control of your own body.
Often people seek help to realign their back but immediately return to a poor use of themselves (stressful habits at work, for instance) which result in tense neck and shoulders whereby the pain caused by this harmful tension continues unchecked.
The Alexander Technique gives you the tools to identify and change harmful habits of tension within your body enabling you to alleviate the conditions within which your pain or discomfort has developed. If you’re worried about your posture or believe that the way you hold yourself may be contributing to your problems, then the AT can help you.
IF YOU WORRY ABOUT PAIN, BAD POSTURE, LOSING MOBILITY AND CONFIDENCE, THEN THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE CAN HELP YOU REGAIN WHAT HAS BEEN LOST
The Alexander Technique is a skill that teaches you how to move with ease and how to live your life without hurting yourself. We all push ourselves, often at the expense of our physical and mental health.
By learning to understand your reactions to the stresses of life and to move your body in a more efficient way, you will learn how to regain control and find a solution to your problems. If we have injured ourselves or fallen, we tense up around the pain or from the fear of falling again. This tension is uncomfortable and can often lead to tripping more easily as we hold ourselves with stiffness. With the help of the AT, you can learn to let go around the pain and to bring yourself to a better sense of balance. I have helped people use their walking sticks and frames with less tension in their hands and arms and gain a greater confidence in their own body’s ability to stay upright.
This is a much more enjoyable place to be.
THE PURPOSE OF THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE IS TO ENABLE YOU TO RECOGNISE HARMFUL HABITS OF MOVEMENT OR CONTRACTION AND INSTEAD LEARN HOW TO RETURN THE BODY TO A RELAXED, BALANCED STATE OF ALIGNMENT AND POISE, NOT JUST WHEN RESTING OR RELAXING BUT AT ALL TIMES.
Most of us spend much of our time on a computer or checking a smartphone for emails and texts. This means you spend much of your time looking down, rather than straight ahead, the way your vertebrae were designed to support your head. Keeping your head bent down and out of balance for long periods of time puts continual strain on the large neck muscles and increases the effort in your spine to hold you upright.
This will result in neck stiffness or pain, and possibly some degeneration in your cervical spine, too. Learning to be aware of your head position and how your body feels whilst you are busy doing something enables you to pay more care and attention to yourself throughout your working day and consequently cause less tension, stiffness and pain. Changing the way you see and use your body during the day’s activities is why the AT is a solution that lasts. Being put back into alignment can only for work for so long when we don’t know how to keep ourselves that way during our day to day life or to not tense up and distort ourselves in reaction to stress. We need to learn how to avoid putting ourselves out of alignment and the AT is a method that teaches us how to do this for ourselves.
The AT is also known for postural improvements as individuals learn how to hold themselves more upright and reduce the inclination to stoop their head forwards when their attention is drawn towards something. This not only reduces aches and pains but makes us look taller and more youthful.
ANDREA HUGHES
ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE