Parallels with Yoga and the Alexander Technique

There are a number of parallels with Yoga and the Alexander Technique. During an Alexander Technique lesson the teacher invites the client to bring their attention to their inner world, their physical body, breathing and their thoughts. Through this process the client discovers how their thoughts bring about specific muscle tension and also how they feel, not just physically but in their emotions. They discover how a thought can crate an emotion and an emotion can create a thought, this then triggers a muscular response. But isn’t this yoga? Yoga is a practice that aligns all these aspects or layers of the body. These layers are called Koshas in Yoga. There are 5 of these: physical layer (Annamaya), vital life force or breath layer (Prananmaya) , mental layer (Manamaya), emotional layer (Vijnananmaya) . When people experience an Alexander lesson they sometimes feel as if it connects them to something more than just their physical and mental body. Maybe this is the firth layer the Ananadamaya Kosha or bliss body.