Alexander teachers would benefit from publishing more before and after pictures.
I like what Amira Alvarez does here.
I was shocked by the before and after picture of Lulie Westfeld in her book on her Alexander journey. These kind of photos are powerful.
Most people I know would like to look more attractive and Alexander Technique helps that.
I don’t think Alexander teachers should get nervous talking about beauty and sex and attraction and status and the stuff of real life and how Alexander helps with it. Alexander teachers strike me as trying too hard to be professional (a response to the insecure nature of the profession) and hence flee from anything that might offend.
I became interested in the Alexander Technique from one sentence in a book by Neil Strauss on meeting women — “The Rules of the Game.” It made sense to me that if I was more poised and had better posture, I would be more attractive to women.
For almost every single guy I know well, almost everything they do is to become more attractive to the opposite sex. Few things will be more effective in this regard than Alexander work.
Sometimes beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but most of the time beauty is objective. We are evolutionarily programmed to respond to certain proportions.
Think about the way Alexander Technique can help redistribute unsightly fat bulges so that people look more proportionate.
In my humble understanding, the Alexander Technique has a lot to say about facial tension. I often tell my students to think about the face widening. As with other widening instructions, these are just directions to the self to stop unnecessarily compressing and scrunching and pulling down and in.
I sometimes bring my hands to the face of the student lying down and let them rest lightly on their cheeks or forehead to promote this release of unnecessary tension.
I try to get my students to notice unnecessary tension around the eyes and the lips.
With the reduction of this tension, the students tends to become more serene, more present, and to display a more resonant voice. And yes, they often look better. More tranquil and yet more alive.
In my third year of training, I spent a couple of weeks of my teacher turns concentrating on developing my voice. I was shocked to see how much my voice improved when I let go of tension around my eyes and lips. A resonant voice is more attractive.
