Unexpected

AT can teach to react adequately in any situation, much more than getting in and out of a chair, or releasing specific areas while laying in semi-supine. Our reactions are implicitly holistic - although we might only guess as to why a person blushes during a conversation, we can safely assume that the blush is more than a physical phenomenon.

I looked forward to a turn with Ann, but she didn't arrive in time for the quick-ease, and changed the order of turns a bit. I asked her about that, and she offered me a turn either in the break or after school. I reacted a lot when she told me about the change of plans, yet agreed on a later session.

I took me a while to direct my attention away from the change of plans, and towards observing some fellow students while cycling. I had a bit of a table turn with Ferry, so I didn't have to go 'turnless' into the group.

The anatomy session was like so often a mixture between dull facts, nice anecdotes and some group work deepening our topic, muscles of head-neck region. Our group gave examples of misuse while speaking, demonstrating poking the head out to make a point, gasping, and shyly talking towards the ground.

Having a turn after school went against my habits, and it was the first time it happened for me. Ann went with me to the back room, and we spend most time talking in a very insightful way. She reflected on my reactions earlier, and lots of lightbulbs went off in my head. Interactions are driven by intentions. If I manage to keep up my intention while just observing my reaction to emotional stimuli, a 'problematic' situation can have a positive outcome. Brooming emotions under the carpet, or riding blindly their waves just makes matters worse. Like so often, happiness lies in the golden middle.

Base of the skull

Before Ann's anatomy session started, I had two short terms with Ferry and David. I notice more the subtle levels of doing, but I still have to work on maintaining a bigger (unified) attentional field. I wonder if I can incorporate some thoughts about the vision system, the experiments at home showed some good results.

We had to prepare a demonstration of the muscles of the base of the skull as homework for anatomy. Thanks to Rossi's idea we managed to improvise a little play in short time, so the homework turned out fun and informative.

Inhibition and direction

I can use my foot again, but acquired already some interesting pattern of changed use in the meantime. With David I detected a bit of asymmetry, probably due to the shift of weight I habituated. Ferry helped me releasing my hip joints a lot, and my proprioception gets more 3 (4?) -dimensional. I don't notice only things close to my skin, but get more inside.

The communication session dealt with anger management, interesting yet in my point of view kind of off topic. I inhibited my averse reaction as good as I could, and focused more on observing the group interactions.

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.

Pregnancy

I had the first turn in this term with Libby, after playing around yesterday in the group work, and she helped me a lot in getting a sensation of width across shoulders. I knew for a longer time that I did some extra work with my shoulders, but I couldn't really pinpoint what. I thought about moving them back or forward, while in fact I narrowed them across my back. When I notice now the familiar uncomfortable twitching on the inside of my scapula, directing width of my shoulders offers the release (and probably the neutral position) I need.

Ferry took up most of the time of our group work where we tried to work on typing, a very common activity for me. However, the observations helped a bit in understanding some important aspects of it, yet I certainly use setups at home which foster bad use.

Instead of a second Julia gave a presentation about pregnancy, and how the technique can help women in this situation and during giving birth.

Release the neck

My turn with Ferry felt good, his directions made it easy to observe myself during chair work. Anatomy with Jeremy wasn't as playful as usual, though we explored each others bodies by palpitating the head and chest.

I didn't really participate in the group work, instead I had a good table turn with Bo. I noticed the (hyper?) activity of my mind, and the change in bodily perception when I started directing myself more. Receiving specific directions helps me a lot to release extra tension, and getting back to the primary control prevented me from chasing pink elephants.

Inhibition

I tried to spruik the wiki today, with minor sucess. Anne, Kate and Duncan noticed the t-shirt, but I still like David to recognise and use the mailing list and spread the word. End gaining? Hard to say, I feel more like I inhibited myself a lot.

I had turns with Duncan and Ferry today. I worked with Duncan and the impulse to fix myself in standing. Ferry worked with me while I was sitting and reading, exploring the shoulder blades kinaestetically and mentally.

Anne gave an introduction to group work, including the P'ching short cut. The playful and unjudgemental approach of the pair work made some basic principles of the work tangible.

Antigravity

Another day with two turns, yet with less revelations than yesterday. The first turn was with Duncan, and therefor more on the verbal side of things, which sometimes overstimulates me a bit. Nevertheless, this gives me the opportunity to exercise using directions as a background process, and I learned a bit more of the relation between my knees and back.

I worked with Ferry for the first time, and had to adjust to his firm hands. I plunged into the chair when I sat down, as I didn't use my hip joints properly, while he directed me by putting hands around my neck. When Libby started working on him while he worked on me it felt much lighter, and I responded much better to a more gentle approach. However, I could collect useful information while doing it "wrong", especially about releasing with verbal suggestion, which worked very well to increase the mobility of my arms.

We came back to ordering and directing in the group work with Libby. We started observing each other undirected, and I happily plunged and collapsed into the chair. The most amazing change happened (with me) when we tried to keep the directions during the movement. A simple "neck free" allowed me an easy getting in and out of the chair, and the other group members (and me) noticed some drastic difference between directed and unconscious movement.

The anatomy session with Anne covered unfamiliar territory, and I liked especially the idea of the antigravity reflex that can kick in once the neck is released. I went into a bit of disagreement about the kind of nerves for muscular control - I brought up intramuscular nerves in addition to those connected in a spinal reflex cycle and those ending in cortical motor area. I better research whether those exist (or not, as David and Anne insisted), as well as the concept of the antigravity reflex (or positive support reaction).