Posture, Pains and Backache, Stress The Alexander Technique is very effective for improving posture, although probably not in the way that you expect.
The Alexander Technique improves posture by improving your use of yourself as a whole. Through learning to use ourselves as nature intended we become more upright, more open and more free of unnecessary tension in everything we do.
A consequence of this is better posture.
Backache & Pains
The human body has an amazing ability to recover from injury and postural habits that align the skeleton efficiently and allow the muscles to be used in a balanced way will optimise your bodies ability to recover from a back problem. Good use is also the best way to avoid a recurrence of back problems. Bad use, on the other hand, can actually stop your back recovering.
Perhaps you have hurt your lower back by bending to lift something heavy badly and you have been diagnosed as having damaged an intervertebral disc causing sciatica. You have damaged the structure of the spine, therefore how you align and muscularly support these structures will either help or hinder your recovery.
If you have damaged your neck, the habitual tension you have in your neck muscles and how you hold your head and neck while walking, bending, talking on the phone and all the activities of daily life will affect how well and quickly you heal.
Or perhaps you have frequent back pain, but do not know what causes it. Years of poor postural habits are very possibly the cause. Learning the Alexander Technique and developing better habits will help.
Whether a back problem is the result of years of misuse of the body or the result of an injury, improving the quality of your daily postural habits is a significant aspect of recovery.
Stress
The Alexander Technique is very helpful in dealing with stress. The experience of having Alexander Lessons is supportive and helpful in itself, with the opportunity to discuss confidentially with the teacher your experience of stress. The teacher will help you apply your developing understanding of the Alexander work to dealing with your stress. People generally feel calmer and more able to deal with things after an Alexander lesson and they feel that they have a tool that will help them cope better in the future.
Source: www.alexandertechnique-london.co.uk
