Alexander Technique Resources for Everyone
The challenges of modern life are best met with poise, alertness, and nimbleness of mind and body. These attributes are our birthright, as demonstrated by every child at play. As adults, however, we tend instead to be hurried, inattentive, and stiff of mind and body. The Alexander Technique is an effective way of getting in touch with our natural freedom, which is characterized not so much by what we do but by what we refrain from doing, and its resulting health and well-being.
In The Alexander Technique: A Skill for Life, I explain the principles of the Technique and - using testimonials, case histories, photos, and line drawings - illustrate its applications to medicine, personal relationships, sports and exercise, and the performing arts. You can read Chapter 2, The Use of the Self, and a short section on that most important of psychophysical activities, Kissing. The book's section on music-making, Working to Principle, is also featured elsewhere in the site.
The child at right is my goddaughter Marianne when she was about three years old. Her mother Catherine de Chevilly teaches the Alexander Technique in Haute Savoie, France.
The Alexander Technique: A Skill for Life was published by The Crowood Press in England in the summer of 1999. A few years earlier I wrote its French version, which was published by Editions Dangles under the title La Technique Alexander: Principes et Pratique. When preparing A Skill for Life I made many changes to my original French project. The two books are therefore very different from each other.
- Read Forward and Up, an essay-length introduction to the Alexander Technique.