Alexander Technique

Often associated with posture and alignment, the Alexander Technique re-educates a body in using less muscle tension. In life we adopt the habits of our parents and our peers. We take on traumas and emotional experiences in our muscles. And we use ourselves in ways that are faulty to our design.

With the guidance of a qualified Alexander technique teacher you will become aware of how muscle tension affects your whole body system. Your movement and your mood may be effected by unnecessary tension held in muscles. Alexander was particularly interested in how the spine relates to the head and how this affects the co-ordination throughout the body.

While investigating his voice problem, Alexander discovered that in co-ordinating his movements in new ways he not only cured his voice problem but healed a bronchial condition he had since childhood. He then found his work helped all sorts of problems from walking with polio to back problems and stress related issues.

A recent article in the English Times newspaper: read here

Lessons in the Alexander Technique

Fiona Cranwell conducts private lessons and courses at OSCAILT. Private lessons are by appointment.
Group classes are in the form of nightclass courses and intensive weekend workshops.
Nightclasses over a period of seven weeks are held regularly to Introduce the Alexander Technique.

Next Courses Start JANUARY 2012 – Wednesday 25th January  till 14th March (8 Weeks €200)

Introduction : 6.15-7.45pm

Continuing Practice : 8.00 – 9.30pm

Book early as group classes are kept small.
www.fionacranwell.com
087 6503523

The Human Being is not fond of Change…

The human being is not fond of change. Patterns of predictability are more comfortable. But sometimes we reach a point when we know something must change. We may not know how we know a change is a foot. Pain is a popular changer. A poor performance when you know you’re capable of more. We become dissatisfied or tired of the comfort zone. It could be just a feeling.

Part of the reason we dislike change is that in acknowledging a need for change is to say we are wrong. Our conditioning during life in this society values getting “it” right. Being correct and doing the right thing gets us a pat on the back. So if I’m not all right, I’m wrong.

Saying I’m wrong can bring up all sorts of emotions and uncomfortable feelings that then interfere with a more satisfactory outcome or desired end. Why do we find it hard to simply observe what is?

Coming to the Alexander Technique the first job is observation, for both teacher and student. What is happening in my body right now? What can I feel?

Often the answers come “I’m fine”, “I feel normal”, “the pain is in its usual place”, “I don’t know what you want me to say”. The teacher and the student have learned very little from these answers. The student is not wrong, in a sense, but they are preconceived answers rather than unique to this moment, with the last answer revealing a need to give a correct answer.

My job is not to catch you out but to guide you in practise finding your answers within your body. They say the body never lies so it’s a good place to listen and see what’s going on. In a moment, there are millions of things happening in your body that you can’t possibly know or control. You can notice one thing.

Where does your attention go, right now? Notice one thing.

Is it the usual ache, or your bum on the chair? Or what your eyes are seeing and depositing for processing on your visual cortex?

Have you already judged your discovery as a right or wrong feeling?

FM Alexander said “Don’t come to me, unless when I tell you you are wrong, you can make up your mind to smile and be pleased.” What’s the good in being right if you are in pain, dissatisfied or feel bad. If you allow yourself to listen to the truth of your body you now have options, opportunities for something new and different to happen.

He himself withered at the fact when he discovered that his own “debauched sense of kinaesthesia” was in part causation of his voice problem. But it wasn’t just him. All the cases he worked with and in observing populations, showed that it is in fact uncommon for a human being to be accurately aware of their own body movement in space.

I find that very heartening. While of course my strong habit to be right slips in regularly, it gives me choice. When I want to be right (in dealing with my sister for instance) it is a clear set of stimuli. I notice my body contracts and my jaw tightens and my chest squeezes and I’ve lost the argument already even though it’s all scripted out in my head.

In that moment I lost the space in my body as I allowed my sister push my button. The habitual responses showed up and I learned something about myself. I then had a choice. Continue with this feeling, push back and let the argument erupt to some shouting. Or catch it, release the body tightness and see where it takes me for a more peaceful outcome. The former may be enjoyable as a spectator sport but the latter makes me feel better.

My point is, letting go of how we are used to using our bodies can allow us find a space for possibility.

My example is one of an external stimulus, it may seem. But really it’s not my lovely sister who tipped my bodies tightening dominoes. They were all my own feelings and reactions set off by a thought or perspective. The reaction was easy to see as the feelings were more intense than before. But what is happening without the stimulus? What’s happening in the stillness a body can find before it is challenged?

There in lies your truth, your power, your true conscious control.

Fiona Cranwell

Alexander Technique Teacher at Oscailt