Good Posture or Good Use?
For many people, the Alexander Technique is closely associated with cultivating good posture. However the term posture is inadequate to convey what it is the Alexander Technique aims to improve. When it comes to posture, it is generally assumed that more uprightness is better and crooked is bad. There is relative truth in this. But striving for uprightness only brings about misuse in another guise: the straining sergeant-major on parade, the rigid achiever, the dancer or model ‘bent’ on maintaining a certain ‘look’, for example. Posture is merely a reflection of our use in general in so far as bad use produces bad posture. Correspondingly, when we use ourselves well, our posture gets better. ‘Posture’ is something static concerning the shape or mishape of the physical body. ‘Use’ on the other hand is something dynamic, fluid and alive, and concerns the organism as a whole.

The Alexander Technique therefore does not address faulty posture directly – although restoring proper functioning of the postural mechanisms is part of it – it is concerned with promoting a state of poise as a basis for all activity: at rest as well as in motion, mentally and emotionally as well as bodily. When poise is regained, posture takes care of itself. When we exercise, or do yoga, or meditate, or play sport or musical instruments without poise, we are only ironing in the harmful effects of the way we have become accustomed to doing things.

Poise - Unstable equilibrium
We rarely display natural grace in daily life but it can still sometimes be seen on the sports field, in the concert hall, on the stage and in very young children. Poise, a condition of relaxed alertness, is connected with whole-ness and if we maintain it all the time we feel lighter and move more easily instead of feeling heavy and fragmented.

One definition of poise is ‘unstable equilibrium’, which seems like a paradox. But tightrope walkers have to remain loose and unstable to maintain balance. The moment they stiffen, they interfere with the reflexes they must use to keep them hovering on the rope. The same natural laws apply for we less adventurous humans sitting safely at ground level behind our computers or at the dinner table. The difference is that when we slump and stiffen, losing our unstable equilibrium, we do not fall crashing to the ground, we just fall further in on ourselves, unaware that this is doing its own kind of damage.

Introduction Psycho-physical unity Misuse - the challenge of our time Posture and poise Postural mechanisms Who was F.M. Alexander? Alexander lessons How many lessons? About the Author