In her last comment, Ariadne brought up a common concern about Alexander Technique lessons causing over thinking or having to think about every single thing you do, maybe even every breath. The Alexander Technique does not encourage that and I don’t suggest trying it.
The Problem
Alexander suggests that we habitually use our bodies in a haphazard way that includes excess tension. In every action (like bending, singing, running), along with doing that action we also create excess tension that works against the action. This excess tension is generally intrinsic to everything we do because it is part of the haphazard fabric of how we use the body.
The Solution
In Alexander lessons, you don’t learn how to do things. Instead, you learn how to stop doing what is unnecessary. You pay less attention to the doing of the activity, and more attention to what is getting in your way. Habits can be very tangled, but as you learn, you can begin to pick out the bad and allow the good to take place on its own. It’s not as hard as it seems because we are made of one cloth and the same habits usually appear in everything we do. Activities may be different, but the habits that get in our way stay the same.
Don’t Learn to Breathe
Breathing is actually a good place to examine this issue. Although breathing is both a conscious and unconscious activity, the same habits of excess tension are with it all the time. In Alexander Technique lessons, you don’t learn how to breath so much as learn how to stop what gets in the way of your breathing so that you free the breath to take place on its own. Here is a link to an exercise and an mp3, Improve Your Breathing.
Breathing tomorrow.