Operating Instructions for Human Beings

Sometimes we can get by with occasional help of experts. If we are injured, medical help may be all we need. If our teeth develop cavities, a dentist can fill them. But if, as so often happens, we develop restrictions in our ability to sit and stand with ease or to move with freedom and grace, we’re left pretty much in the dark as to how to improve the situation.

A number of somatic methods and therapies have been developed which are designed to help people improve the quality of their physical functioning - The Feldenkrais Method, Rolfing, Somatics, Pilates, to name but a few. I am most familiar with the Alexander Technique, a method that has a long history of teaching people how they can improve their posture and coordination.

Teaching is the key word here; the Alexander Technique is above all an educational process that recognizes that real change must come from within. It is for this reason that practitioners of the Technique call themselves teachers rather than therapists.

One of the four books written by F. Matthias Alexander, the developer of the Technique, is aptly titled The Use of the Self. And while the Alexander Technique certainly does not claim to offer a complete “human instruction manual”, it does provide basic, practical information about how we humans function, and how we can improve the quality of our functioning.

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Two other books that provide the beginnings of a human instruction manual are How to Learn the Alexander Technique - A Manual for Students by Barbara Conable and Mind and Muscle - An Owner’s Handbook by Elizabeth Langford. These books, as well as The Use of the Self and a great many other books and videos about the Alexander Technique are available from the Alexander Technique Bookstore at http://www.alexandertechnique.com/books

More information about the Alexander Technique can be found at http://www.alexandertechnique.com Information about some of the other somatic methods and therapies can be found at http://www.posturepage.com

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