As a young man, Alexander made a name for himself on the stage, reciting Shakespeare. Then he began to be bothered by a tendency to losing his voice during performances. He followed doctors’ advice, even resting his voice completely for 2 weeks, but the problem of hoarseness always recurred once he was on stage. Alexander began to think that something he was doing in response to that situation was the cause.

He set up mirrors so that he could see himself from every angle and observed what happened when he used his voice as if on stage. Now the observational skills he had developed in childhood were to serve him well.

Initially Alexander noticed that he was tensing the back of his neck and gasping in his breath. Gradually he began to see that there was a pattern of tension throughout his body, from his neck all the way down to his feet. The overall effect was a reduction in his stature. He was shortening himself.

This makes sense when you realise that muscles don’t just move our limbs, they also support and space out the bones of our whole skeleton. Together, the muscles and bones make up our structure. So if muscles are shortened by excess tension, the framework of the body can be distorted.

Having observed in the mirrors just what he was doing to himself when using his voice, Alexander then set out to stop the unhelpful tension.

Eventually, through a long process of trial and error, alongside careful observation of himself, Alexander began to make improvements to his voice. He had also widened the scope of his study to include his whole “psychophysical” self and made remarkable improvements to his general health.

His actor friends noticed how much Alexander’s voice had improved, and he began sharing his discoveries. When he first started “teaching” others, it was just by telling them how to do things differently. Then he developed the method of hands-on teaching, to encourage the release of tension and to guide movement, which is still used by Alexander teachers today.

Alexander’s reputation as “the breathing man” began after helping many people with breathing difficulties. In the medical world it was thought that he should take his new discoveries to London. The fact that he was able to do so, was thanks again to his background on the farm. He was a keen horseman, with an eye for a good horse. He won a bet, and with his substantial winnings could afford to travel to England in 1904.

Here the Alexander Technique became popular not only among actors, but also with literary figures of the day, such as George Bernard Shaw and Aldous Huxley, together with many leading doctors and scientists.

During his years of practical experimentation and personal observation, Alexander discovered fundamental truths about human co-ordination and movement which have since been borne out by the scientific world. He continued to develop and teach his Technique in London and America until his death in 1955. Now there are over 2000 teachers of the Alexander Technique worldwide.