Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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Use affects functioning
"Use affects functioning." So said F.M. Alexander with regards to the effect our movements and posture can affect the efficient and healthy working of our body. If we get a pain somewhere, this is our body telling us that something is wrong. It's like a red light flashing on the car dashboard. It's there as a warning.
The person who observed the harmful effects of postural habits and developed a method to overcome them so that we can achieve our full potential was F.M. Alexander, the originator of the Alexander Technique. This is the only method that I know of that focuses almost entirely on eliminating our harmful postural habits and reviving our natural poise. Other methods such as Pilates and Yoga can be of enormous benefit to us in various ways when we receive good instruction, but in order to rid ourselves of our postural habits and gain more conscious control over ourselves during our daily activities, I must recommend the Alexander Technique. Indeed, it will help you do everything you do in life, better as well as help rid you of back ache as recent research has proven. The Technique is completely consistent with orthodox medical science.
The Alexander Technique is a simple method that we can use to rid ourselves of unhealthy postural habits and relearn the natural poise we enjoyed as young children. It involves us becoming more aware of our balance and we learn to avoid tensing in unhealthy ways and encourage a quality of looseness and expansiveness. We tap into the instinct for good poise that we’ve had from birth and we utilise our ‘balancing mechanism’ and ‘postural mechanism’ that are inbuilt. So we don’t need to be clever and we don’t need any special aptitude. We all have the ability to regain the natural poise that is our birthright. The Alexander Technique is a practical method that we can learn to use for ourselves, to be more self-sufficient, to help ourselves be on top form and avoid problems occurring in the future.
It is this method that I have had personal experience of all my adult life and now teach at my practice in central London. Many of the essential principles and some of the steps you can take to help yourself have been outlined here in my blog over the last two years. It must be said at the outset that it is normal for people to have one-to-one lessons in the Alexander Technique to ensure the fastest progress. I therefore recommend that you find a local practitioner to demonstrate it to you. You are likely to get a new experience that may feel strange and unfamiliar, nevertheless quite enjoyable –indeed it may even ‘feel’ wrong according to how you’ve experienced life up till now. A teacher can help guide you through these stages, reaffirming where you are applying the procedures correctly even if they don’t feel ‘right’, and so ensure that you are working in the appropriate way to change your manner of use. A teacher will not set out to try and ‘cure’ you of your symptoms, but will teach you how you can look after yourself on a practical level. As you start to apply these principles, your use of yourself is likely to change, which in turn will bring about a natural improvement to your posture and with it an improved co-ordination and an enhanced sense of well being.
On that note, I must prepare for my next client this afternoon. Back again soon. :-)
