The Alexander Technique evaluates and explores the opportunities of it being an effective and safe technique that can be integrated as a holistic healing modality within the nursing practice and self-care. “The Alexander Principle states: that there are certain ways of using your body which are better than certain other ways; that when you reject these better ways of using your body, your functioning will begin to suffer in some important respects; that it is useful to assess other people by the way they use themselves” (Barlow, 1990, p. -4).
Convincing evidence subsists the usefulness of the Alexander Technique. Exploring the Alexander Technique The Alexander Technique is an interesting holistic healing modality practice. This research paper will demonstrate the integration and self- care practice that this technique is providing to individuals in helping develop constant skills to assist with posture and coordination. The body is a wonderful and amazing component of the human body especially when the brain and muscles work together as one to achieve a balance.
The brain is consistently regulating muscle tension in order to support the human body form gravity, but what happens when these alignments are affected and the body it self starts to feel pain. Being a licensed practical nurse at a rehabilitation center helped in choosing the Alexander Technique. The Alexander Technique evaluates and explores the opportunities of it being an effective and safe technique that can be integrated as a holistic healing modality within the nursing practice and self-care.
The Alexander Principle states: that there are certain ways of using your body which are better than certain other ways; that when you reject these better ways of using your body, your functioning will begin to suffer in some important respects; that it is useful to assess other people by the way they use themselves” (Barlow, 1990, p. 3-4). Convincing evidence subsists the usefulness of the Alexander Technique. Choosing the Alexander Technique and Experience
The rationale for choosing the Alexander modality is to evaluate and review evidence of the usefulness and well-being of direction that the Alexander Technique can demonstrate for health related conditions. Use is a word that implies something with purpose, what if that purpose has affecting functioning. According to Wilfred Barlow (1990), “ Use means the way we use our bodies as we live from moment to moment. Not only when we are speaking, but when we are thinking. ” (pg. ) We use our bodies as a means of function to complete activities or daily life tasks that can become habits that can harm an individual later on in life, using body posture wrong or something as simple as depression making some body parts to ache and hurt is a good example.
He states, “ By the time we reach adult life, if not before, most of us will have developed tension habits that are harmful. The habits at first may show themselves only as trifling inconsistencies of behavior, or perhaps as occasional muscular pain or clumsiness” (Barlow, 1990, p. ). Working in a rehabilitation center as a licensed practical nurse the envision that overtakes to incorporate not just for self care but as a motivation to educate my patients in how to understand how their use of function had affected them in such ways they have became unaware of their use of their body extremities causing them harm, pain, as well as injuries. The Alexander Technique can help an individual learn to become aware of their use of body extremities and the bad habits that has been learned from over the years.
The Alexander Technique helps an individual become aware as well as back in touch with that skill that was lost while going through the process of adulthood. According to Gray (1991), “ We have to learn to recognize and observe our problems, learn to inhibit old responses that force the body constantly back into harmful patterns that aggravate old problems and cause new one to develop, and then learn to order or direct ourselves in such a way as to allow for a new ‘means whereby’ we can improve change and fulfill our greater potential” (p. 26).
The technique is simply a form of way of showing an individual the misuse of their body and how to prevent this misuse. The theoretical underpinnings of the Alexander Technique The theoretical underpinnings of the Alexander Technique are to correct muscle and skeletal stress and tension by re-educating individuals of using proper posture. This technique is mostly shown through hands on instructions. It suppose to focus on the present experience making the instructor develop a save relaxation for the client to understand, learn, and create a psychological awareness that they are able to unblock the lockage that they have built as an obstruction of their desire state of being. Alexander insisted that our head, neck, and back was an important fundamental. According to Gelb (1995) states, “ Alexander now understood that functioning of his vocal mechanism was influenced not only by his head and neck but by the pattern of tension throughout his body” (p. 12). However, there have been trials that established a positive result in the movement of coordination, balance, posture regulation as well as muscle tone compliances.
Alexander had established a experiment that included 108 young men between the ages of seventeen and twenty-two, placing a tape that went from the head to the back observing how much the tape moved downed over the ink mark that was place over the prominent vertebra. He found that out of 108 only one didn’t move the tape, he was trying to explain the complexity of re-teaching one-self how to sit properly with proper posture. “ It is not surprising that most of these young men could not change their habitual head movement simply by trying.
We cannot alter our habitual way of doing things simply by deciding to do them some other way. Our will is potentially free, but to free it for effective action we need certain principles of use on which to base out actions” (Barlow, 1990, p. 19). Nonetheless, random trials as well show long-term decrease in pain and injured people with back pain and an increased ability to carry out daily tasks and activities of Parkinson’s disease individuals. Studies have also shown progression in respiratory and pain management balance in elderly people.
The mechanism that an individual uses to protect themselves from overwhelmed emotions and conflicts of emotions helps to enable more positive and appropriate integration of the technique for the present practices for productivity. Enhancing physical self-awareness may create awareness of the primary apprehensions. Teacher and student frequently deal with these effects as a fundamental part of trainings, while no precise method has been established that the Alexander Technique works with responsive practices that may be respected.
Nurse-healer in using the Alexander Technique The role of the nurse –healer in using the Alexander technique is to teach themselves first hand about awareness, inhibition, and direction. This becomes a self-assessment, in order to teach it to others you must teach it to yourself. One good nursing area this technique can be applied is though pregnancy and childbirth. This technique can be applied to anyone and anything for comfort and recovery.
However, it is a educational approach that is taught through a combination of hands-on and verbal explanation. A nurse can teach their patient how to achieve a way to cut down on bad habits that is blocking them from achieving excellence with their daily activities such as standing, walking, and sitting down. The teaching must be structure according to the individual. There is no right or wrong way of doing only using the principles Alexander established to be successful at.
According to Barlow (1990) states, “ Alexander teachers, naturally, vary in their approaches, but unlike teachers in other teaching situations, they all have one goal in common: to obey their own educational demands if they are influence their pupils. It is for this reason that training of Alexander teachers has always first been aimed at improving their own use to a point where they have not only a high standard but one they can sustain when they are under full teaching pressure” (p. 183).
The technique is to make us more vulnerable and opened to grace. Conclusion The Alexander Principle states: that there are certain ways of using your body which are better than certain other ways; that when you reject these better ways of using your body, your functioning will begin to suffer in some important respects; that it is useful to assess other people by the way they use themselves” (Barlow, 1990, p. 3-4). The technique is very detailed and it tends to go deeper in the meanings of the principles Alexander states throughout his discovery. It helps revisit the same concepts many times however, in different levels of experiences.
It suppresses habitual ways and enhances and allows and individual to experience functional realism. Makes a person connect ad a whole person of one unity. Individuals have a constant say on the responsive way of our functions through awareness through primary control and inhibition and direction. We as an individual have the power to self teach ourselves this technique and as a nurse self use it for self-care as well. It can be a very effective technique and safe one that can be integrated as a holistic healing modality within the nursing practice and self-care as well.
