THINKING - MOVING - IMPROVING
LUCY CAMPION - ITM ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE
Cardiff, South Wales
ABOUT THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE
WHAT IS THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE?
The Alexander Technique is a powerful tool for self-improvement, and is named after its creator, Frederick Mathias Alexander. The Technique is a principle-based approach to learning about thought and movement, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest processes for personal change and development available to us today.
WHY DO WE NEED THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE?
Sometimes, when carrying out an activity, we make things unnecessarily hard for ourselves. We might create excess tension or use muscles that we don't need to use, and this can result in all sorts of problems - from aches and pains to losing the enjoyment of the things we once loved to do.
Desperate to feel better, to get rid of the pain, to "fix" our problem, we often go in search of a remedy.
In our quest to alleviate pain, to perform in a better way, or to be more successful, the remedy we almost always find is to ADD something to what we are already doing in the sheer hope that it helps us.
Let's think about this for a moment.
So here we are, trying to carry out our every day tasks, becoming increasingly achy, and possibly feeling a little emotionally distressed too. And now we are going to add something else on top of all of that.
Does this sound familiar to you?
But what if there was a different approach that we could take? What if we could learn to STOP creating excess tension, STOP using muscles unnecessarily, and STOP wasting our energy so that we can, instead, learn to move and live with greater ease and comfort?
And what if, having learned to apply this different approach to our movements, we can gradually learn to apply this way of thinking to all areas of our lives - improving our ability to think and reason out situations, and to make better judgements.
Through lessons in the Alexander Technique, we can explore this different way of thinking and moving, and see how we are able to make positive changes in our own lives.
WHO WAS F. M. ALEXANDER?
Frederic Matthias Alexander (1869-1955) was an Australian actor, who developed the technique as a result of trouble he was experiencing with the use of his vocal chords. After many years of successful acting, Alexander began to encounter hoarseness to the extend that he could no longer perform. Not wanting to abandon the career he loved so much, he embarked on a period of long study and exploration into what was causing his problem, how to solve it, and how to prevent it from happening again.
Through this process, Alexander discovered the principles which underpin what we today call the Alexander Technique.
"What would your life be like if in everything you did, you used just as much effort as was necessary and no more?"
Don Weed, Founder of the ITM Alexander Technique
HOW CAN THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE HELP US?
Alexander started his own journey by asking himself, "Could it be that it was something I was doing myself that was causing my problem?"; and this idea is at the heart of every Alexander Technique lesson.
One of Alexander's greatest discoveries was that his vocal disorder was being caused by something that he was doing himself. This was a major discovery. In fact, the idea that we can cause our own problems is at the heart of the Alexander Technique.
The good news is that if we have the power to cause own problems lies within ourselves, then the power to change it lies within ourselves too.
During Alexander Technique lessons, we explore how our thoughts and behaviours affect our movements and the carrying out of activities, and by changing the thoughts which influence our movements we can change the manner of our performance.
And as an Alexander Technique teacher, I am here to help you with that process.