Let Your Life Flow: The Physical, Psychological and Spiritual Benefits of the Alexander Technique

Alexander Technique: 'a Technique that makes you look taller'; 'an exercise
programme for a healthier well-being'; 'something that extends your toes'; there are
lots of ideas that people have about Alexander Technique. Though none of these ideas
are technically wrong, amidst the world of increasing complementary health therapies
this Technique is still an ambiguous issue in the minds of many people.
Alex Maunder, a full-time practising Alexander Technique teacher who lives and works in London and a member of the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique since 1988,
decided to change that and wrote a very comprehensive, understandable book about
the subject called: 'Let Your Life Flow'.

The book, published in June 2002, describes from a variety of spiritual, intellectual and emotional angles what it is all about, making the Technique available for anyone. Maybe you have been suffering with back or shoulder pain and can't find the right treatment, or maybe you feel that life is getting on top of you. Whether you are more spiritually and emotionally inclined, or see life from an intellectual and scientific viewpoint, the Technique, and indeed this
book, could appeal to you.

'Let Your Life Flow' gives a fresh, updated interpretation of the original 19th Century
Alexander Technique and enables anyone to include the Technique in every day life.
Flowing through 234 pages, with easy-to-understand body drawings and a useful
index, the book sets out in a practical manner how the Technique, which aims to
restore a person's mental and emotional harmony, works in various aspects of
everyday life, and how to apply it.

In clear but concise and detailed language, it is explained how muscles work, how to
direct energy with our thoughts, and how the mind, with its emotions and feelings,
and the body are connected; as we are all 'psycho-physical beings', says the writer.
"Alexander was the first to introduce the idea of psycho-physical unity. At the time it was a revolutionary concept , now a lot of people agree with it. But most people don't know how to use that knowledge. That's one of the main reasons why I wrote the book; to explain those subtle concepts in clearly understandable language. I want people to use it and to understand what it can do to their lives", explains Mr Maunder.

The reader is taken into the core of the Alexander Technique as a posture-improving,
bad-habit combating and tension- releasing method in order to restore balance in the
body and lengthen the spine as a result. The book also explains how the choice of words used to describe our muscular tension and bad postural habits can be replaced with more positive and less judgmental words that you can find with the help of the Alexander Technique and your inner Body Wisdom. "We tend not to realise that there is a resonance in words. If you can use words that resonate with a positive bodily experience you are going to set up a positive habit pattern more easily than a purely intellectual idea could".

"In the last 20 years there has been a lot of scientific research which has measured how our repeated thoughts and emotions can have a very strong effect on the chemical balance of the brain and into the cellular level of the body. I find it fascinating that science has finally caught up with the Alexander Technique" says Mr Maunder.

In effect, the book shows how to slowly set out a new lifestyle and thinking
process with initially hard-to-grasp concepts, but don't worry, the author repeats these
new concepts often enough and in many different ways so that the reader can understand and apply them.

This book should be useful for most people at whatever level. "I think it is for a whole range of people: for the complete beginner, it is also useful for the student who wants a clear framework within lessons and for Alexander Technique teachers because it provides new insights, ideas and a new energy model of the Technique"...