Rapid change

I dared to do more standing and walking during my turn with Penny, and noticed how much my pain avoidance has affected other parts of my body. On the positive side, this injury helps me experiencing the patterns arising from a 'single cause'.

Before we warmed our voices up with some singing, I played a lot with my CJ ball. I like singing in a group more than solo, yet it's getting better. With an internal smile and a distracting idea for the audience my voice gained more resonance, and I stayed in a good rhythm.

Anatomy

I enjoyed another table turn today, this time with Ann. She managed to lengthen me a lot, and helped releasing heaps of tension build up by trying to prevent pain. She told me to let my body react to the pain, instead of bracing around it, and to my surprise I could walk quite nicely.

Bo gave me another table turn, and I realised that doing it quietly makes it more efficient. Either that, or directing before talking could work. We widened my back, before a double anatomy session kicked off.

Ann asked me to demonstrate my limping, yet I still managed to direct myself and could walk free of pain. I didn't want to mimic my morning state, but some people had seen me earlier anyway, so Ann showed how I isolated (and therefor disintegrated) the part in pain.

I still need to figure out where my diaphragm attached to the rips, I certainly have to change my idea of the location of my lungs. The breathing exercise in the deep monkey yielded no remarkable observation, but room for exploration.

I bruised my foot yesterday by ambitiously jumping off a 2 metre fence, so I didn't put too much weight on the aching foot. During the table turn with Matt I felt nearly no pain, releasing the muscles around the affected area counteracted some habitual responses.

The reading session brought no real new information, and afterwards I had the pleasure of being the subject of table work of three students at the same time. I noticed some differences in the ways Sharon, Anne and Maria put their hands on, and I wonder how much my expectation and prior experiences influence the connection between our nervous systems.

In the last group we revisited spirals. I didn't feel comfortable standing, yet Margaret's tip to let the weight pass through my injured foot into the ground worked amazingly well. Still, the pain distracted me a lot so that my hands did not pick up much.

Spirals

I walked to school, which made it easier to adapt again to the 'Alexander thing'. My turn with Margaret taught me a lot, and my proprioception doesn't feel too screwed up after two weeks break.

In the group with Margaret and Ria we talked about the spirals formed by muscle groups that loop around the torso and the limbs. The comparison to the structure of fabric, and its different elasticity depending on the direction of tension within it helped me a lot to refine my ideas about muscles and fascia. While muscles work a bit like a sewed fabric, fascia acts more knitted fabric. (Take this with a grain of General Semantics).

In between the groups Maria and Anne worked with me, and I'm quite surprised about the difference in contact I notice when they put hands on.

Lailani took us very slowly through some asanas based on all fours. I manage more and more to forget about end-gaining while doing yoga, and really love to notice the increase in body awareness that comes with this changed attitude.

Trying hard

I had a turn with Julia, and although I still haven't understood her concept of forward and up, she manages to lengthen me a lot. I become more aware of the subtle complexity of pattern within the body, and thus more efficient in using directions.

My performance in the singing sessions fluctuates a lot. I improved in comparison to last week, but Jenny needed to do a lot to stop me from holding and other useless patterns. It helps me a lot to play a soundtrack in my mind while singing, I just need a better control of the volume level.

Walking

I had a nice chat with Duncan during my turn, explaining the advances made by analysing my initially very faulty body map. We did hardly any chair work, and I spend the rest of the turn with CJ.

Anatomy gave a detailed walk through of gaits, specifying each phase by naming its effects on joints and muscles.

Fitness

I forgot my cold medication this morning, so after an initial feel good time after getting up I slipped a little bit into the cold twilight zone. I can easily execute Bronwyn's directions, even though I was quite tense at the start of the turn. Trying hard and tensing seem to go together, I better remember this. Her turn felt like a cure to me, even though no challenge waited later for me.

Peter Fisher, an Alexander Technician and Physiotherapeut, gave a presentation about the concept of fitness from a sociological, scientific, psychological and Alexander point of view. A lot of the statements aired from the fitness industry sound like science, but a mere opinion. The consequences, benefits and harms, of regular exercise have not been sufficiently studied, as too many disciplines with too many specific models did not use a common framework to describe the processes and relation of interventions like specific exercise regimes.

Too few exercise can do as much harm as too much, the right level of fitness allows to partake in all desired and necessary activity with sufficient strength, mobility, stamina and ease. Peter explained the concepts of the ICF, the international classification of functioning, disability and health. The ICF seems to incorporate more of a dynamic, interactive view of the human being, and can provide the basis for studies, including those trying to measure the effects of the Alexander Technique.

Unfortunately we didn't do too many Aikido exercises - it looked like a lot of fun.

Common cold torso.

The weekend adventures left me with a cold, a new experience waited for me. Jane's table turn helped to start the week leisurely, and with new ideas about width in my torso.

Lailani showed a me bit more forward with the head, it still feels odd to organise my body below a head that's forward and up. I learned a lot about some of the holding pattern, but have yet to figure out what's left to release.

Yoga didn't feel to straining, probably I managed to use less effort just because of the cold (or the medication). I experimented with David's idea of releasing into an asana, and enjoyed the exercises.

We played with release of the ankles in Matt's mini group, just Will, Kaz and me. I liked revisiting an experiment after some time, and the information gained today felt more detailed.

Change of Routine

I didn't blog each day this week, I let myself go from my routine to explore something else. I think I had turns with Jenny, David, Julia, Ineke, Ferry and Margaret this week. Jenny noticed a change in shape today, and Ineke helped me staying aware of both arms while I do CJ, especially with the left hand.

David rehearsed his presentation with us, interesting yet without much highlight. We observed sitting in the MacDonald way (back upright while moving), which turned out to be quite fun.

The most remarkable observation happened outside school, when I managed to release my ellbow, which allowed my arm to grow and to release the shoulders.