It can get pretty cold in New York City, and the Alexander Technique can help; not with the cold, but how we react to the cold. When we’re cold we tend to shorten our spines, though this is usually an unconscious action. We scrunch our necks in an effort to keep warm. It might or might not it keep us warm, but it certainly doesn't help our neck...
The Alexander Technique has been described as a reeducation technique or psycho-physical reeducation. It is also a technique to be overlearned, and not only because you learn it over other things (bad habits of either movement or stillness), but when it comes to the Alexander Technique we need to be overeducated; we need to overlearn it so that we can use it under duress, much like a musician practices over and over to be able to execute music under stress...
The Alexander Technique helps reduce pain, and I know this from personal experience. The Alexander Technique got me out of the severe neck pain I was in, and now I see the same results over and over as I teach Alexander Technique lessons in NYC to people suffering from back pain, neck and shoulder pain, hand pain. We don't realize that we're causing our own pain by the way we use our bodies (poor posture, added stress). The good news is that the Alexander Technique shows us a way out from this pain. It puts us back in control...
