"You cannot change and yet remain the same, though this is what most people want."  So said late, great Alexander Technique Teacher Patrick Macdonald (1910-1991).  To escape from the tyranny of habit, we need to identify our unconstructive patterns, and then stop doing them.  This is exactly the process of personal change that teachers of the Alexander Technique are trained to facilitate.

The Alexander Technique is so rich and multi-faceted that I've always struggled to sum it up in a few words.  This morning, while jogging through the woods, I came up with 'Using your thinking to get the best from your body' as a possible one-sentence definition of the Technique.  But when I walked back through the front door my eye caught the yellow plastic pack given out to schoolchildren by Tfl and the Mayor of London, to promote road safety. 'Stop. Think. Live.' it said on the cover.  As a truly succinct summary of the Alexander Technique, that will do nicely!