Reading

I had a kind of fix me table turn with Margaret, which worked out really well. Feeling still quite jetlagged, it helped me to stay in my body, with a reduced amount of stimuli interfering. It looks like the process of unravelling my bodily habits looped back to my shoulders, after noticing the extra effort in my ankles, knees and hips.

We dealt with the worry habit during the reading session, yet not really in a satisfying matter. Although most teachers encounter apprehension, worries and anxieties at some point with their students, FM Alexander offered only an approach resembling cognitive therapy. Fortunately Alexander teachers use their hands as well, which allows them to give their students new (psychophysical) experiences instead of analysing causes to death.

In Jenny's group we tried to use the monkey to find out about our own worries, which failed me a bit, mainly because the jetlag diverted most of my attention.

Anatomy

I still struggle with some of the names, but it seems to get better any day. (Thats easy to say after two days). I spend about half an hour in semi supine, which more and more appears to be an amazing tool to regain awareness of the body.

Jeremy took the turn on me today, and showed me an astonishing way to get out of a slump without doing anything about it. Releasing the neck and rocking slightly back and forth did the trick, with no attention to the shoulders at all. Maria had 5 minutes to put her hands on me before that, and Kaz tried to get me on the tips of my feet.

The activity session with Libby was about sleeping, a very important activity. It surprised me how different bodies look like while basically doing the same, ie lying on the side ready to sleep. However, using pillows for the support of the upper arm, the belly and between the legs improves the length of the spine and produces easily the sensation of more comfort.

The anatomy session with Jeremy constituted the most formal part, and like the reading part requires us to do homework. I still need another book to do my homework, yet I might check the Uni library and make some copies, in case the book won't arrive soon in the school. The body has only a finite number of components like bones, tendons, ligaments, organs and muscles, yet I don't know too much about the interactions and the locations that apply.

I really enjoy being the object of hand work of the second years - Will, Kaz and Maria had a go so far. I realise more and more the pervasiveness of Alexander's approach. However, I noticed the similarity to Gurdjieff's, Feldenkrais and Crowley's constant reminder to introspection. The things I learn feed my desire for something new and useful, yet it grows with everything new.