Alexander technique

The Alexander technique, named after Frederick Matthias Alexander, sets out to teach people how to avoid unnecessary muscular and mental tension during their everyday activities. It is an educational process rather than a relaxation technique or form of exercise. Most other methods take it for granted that 'one's awareness of oneself' is accurate, whereas Alexander said that people who had been using their musculature wrongly for a long time could not trust their feelings (sensory appreciation) in carrying out any activity or in responding to situations emotionally. Practitioners say that such problems are often caused by repeated misuse of one's musculature over a long period of time, for example, by standing or sitting with one's weight unevenly distributed, holding one's head incorrectly, walking or running inefficiently, or responding to stressful stimuli in an exaggerated way. The purpose of the Alexander technique is to help people unlearn maladaptive psychophysical habits and return to a balanced state of rest and poise in which one's musculature is functioning as an integrated whole.