Stephen Parker

It may be easier to define what the Alexander Technique isn't, rather than to define what it is. There are a number of ways of understanding it and experiencing it. In a sense it is similar to the age-old description of the elephant and the nine blind men. Each man has their own perception of the beast, and each is correct to a certain degree.

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But back to what it isn't. It is not a form of therapy, or a new-age ideology. Nor is it healing, or a system of body mechanics. Despite these things it is often lumped together in these categories, perhaps because it is quite common to experience elements of these things while starting to learn the principles of the technique.

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A good starting point is to think of it as a learning process, whereby one becomes more adept at stopping, (or inhibiting) one's initial reaction to a stimulus. This stimulus can be anything in life, and as we often tend to speak of "the physical" and the "the mental" as different aspects, so too we tend to speak of stimuli in similar terms. This can lead us to think that reacting to a stimulus to move, for example, is essentially different from reacting to a stimulus to think, or to speak or act in a more "mental" way. But regardless of which of these aspects, mental or physical, that tends to appear more predominant, we react to all stimuli as a whole, and in what might be termed a "psychophysical" manner.

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Another way to approach the principles of the technique is in relation to habits. By learning to change our reaction to something that stimulates a habit, we can develop the choice to change habits in general.

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Yet another way to understand the technique is that it is a tool to help you function more efficiently in all aspects of life. It becomes a skill that one can use in relation to anything, be it performing, working at a computer, lifting, running, doing yoga, and so on.