Life Just Got Easier with the Alexander Technique
Life just got easier!
This phrase – a mini description of the Alexander Technique if you like – was thought up by Alexander teacher Theta Michele Drivon. This came up during a presentation at the annual conference of the American Society for the Alexander Technique in Chicago which I attended at the end of June. The phrase resonated with many of us, including me.
So why did we like it so much? I think it spoke to us, because it really does feel like so much of life is easier with the Alexander Technique. Of course, this doesn’t not mean we won’t come up against various challenges and hardships. Rather that we have a tool which can serve us in many (if not all) situations in at least some small way.
The word “easier” is also linguistically related to the word “ease,” another quality often associated with the Alexander Technique.
As I thought about this phrase, I came up with this list of some of the ways in which the Alexander Technique had made my life a little – or a lot! – easier:
- The chronic neck pain from which I suffered before studying the Alexander Technique is for the most part long gone. Life just got easier!
- I am more confident and self-assured when dealing with others. Life just got easier!
- I am more comfortable in my own skin – with being myself. Life just got easier!
- I am now able to enjoy my time at the computer each day without any adverse effects (strain, tension, back pain, RSI, etc.). Life just got easier!
- I am aware of tensions starting much earlier than I used to, and have learned how to intervene and release them so they don’t become a big problem. Life just got easier!
- My daily walk is so much more pleasurable since learning the Alexander Technique (check out Walking the Alexander Way by Amy Ward Brimmer). Life just got easier!
- When exercising I use my body much more appropriately and efficiently so am much less likely to hurt myself. Life just got easier!
- I’m much more aware of my thought patterns, so when worries or negative thoughts surface, I have strategies which allow me not to let them take over. Life just got easier!
These are just a few of the ways in which my life is easier due to the Alexander Technique.
Have you studied the Alexander Technique? In what ways has it made your life easier? I’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments in the box below.
Fabulous blog! Nothing is more true for me, and that phrase does resonate–because it has been proven experientially. I am in the process of writing my “Alexander Life Story” and I’m thinking of all the many ways my life did get much, much easier once I started taking Alexander lessons. Of course, opening up to my true self also opened me up to a whole world of pain I had been ignoring, but my teacher was able to support me through that (along with some other key people in my life), and the liberation that resulted was phenomenal.
The Alexander Technique helps me to look honestly at myself and my habits — life just got easier! I can open my heart to a full range of feelings — life just got easier! I can breathe again — life just got easier!
And thanks for the shout out to my blog — life just got easier! 🙂
Thanks, Amy. I love your list, and am amazed that breathing didn’t show up on my own (which was, of course, just some of the many ways)! I’m also very much looking forward to reading your “Alexander Life Story!”
Life got easier for me in so many ways once I learned to integrate the Alexander Technique into my work, exercise, ‘play’, and me time.
Being challenged with mere sitting and standing has been part of my daily life these past several years. Can you imagine the fear of falling each and every time you got out of bed, went up a flight of stairs or stood up from my seat on a plane, at the cinema or at a business event to shake the hand of a prospective client. Using the Alexander Technique now comes second nature to my movement, like breathing, I now know what to expect. I trust it.
The Alexander Technique has given me back my freedom-something I’d thought was lost forever.
Mary Jo, Thank you so much for your comments. I am truly moved to hear you speak so highly of the Technique. Having come to know you over the past couple of years, I have an idea of some of the challenges you face. I’m so pleased that the Alexander Technique has been so helpful, and that it has indeed made your life easier.
I love this tag line too, and my own experience of Alexander has been so much about living with more ease. Even my most busy, challenging times are so much easier than before my Alexander practice. I often think about moving through daily things, from making coffee in the morning, to riding a bike, to standing in line, to teaching, with as much ease and spaciousness as I can. Everything is so much more pleasurable when ease is forefront in my consciousness!
Thanks so much for sharing, Constance! It is indeed a fabulous line that expresses so much!
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