How To Know if the Alexander Technique is Working

The Alexander Technique is a way for the body to feel and move better in a more comfortable and relaxing way. The Alexander technique is considered an alternative medicine and an educational discipline that focuses on the body’s coordination. The person teaching the technique will help you to recognize and also rid yourself of any bad habits that you have built up over your lifetime and then learn how to freely move.

F. Matthias Alexander first created the principles of the technique between the years 1890 and 1900. He developed it as a personal tool to help rid patients of breathing problems and hoarseness. He began to teach his newfound technique to students for thirty years before he created a school that trained teachers to pass his work on to others.

With the Alexander Technique, you will learn how to take away bad movement habits as well as tension patterns that are at the root of your pain. You will also learn how to balance your body and take charge of your own overall health. You will achieve this by learning how to stand, sit and move with greater ease, safety and efficiency.

You will see great benefits from the Alexander Technique if you:

1. are suffering from a continuous strain injury.
2. are suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome.
3. have a stiff neck or shoulders.
4. have a back ache.
5. if you are an entertainer or athlete and feel like you are not performing to your highest potential.

Taking lessons to learn the Alexander Technique will many times make you feel very happy. This is so because pressure start to be released from your body. If you feel this sense of happiness, you will be aware that the technique is beginning to work for you. The relationship between emotion and the body’s state of tension is definitely connected to one another. The technique does not heal your emotional issues, but does help you in being aware of the consequences of these emotions on your bodily tension.

If you want to know if the Alexander Technique is working for you, evaluate your overall body with the following steps:

1. Slowly and gradually build your self-awareness.
2. Decide whether or not you feel your body movements are less labored.
3. Notice if you are able to breathe easier or not.
4. Consider whether or not your state of mind is more at ease.
5. Accept that the technique is a skill that may take a while to master.
6. Look at yourself in a mirror and compare your body movements now to your movements before you started the technique.
7. Ask the one helping you to learn the technique to evaluate your progress.