Systematic

This term offered many surprises, the lack of any predictable structure among them. This way I can excuse my own lazyness of keeping track of the work. I seem to be able to maintain more uptime outside school, something brings me down there. Strange.

The turn with Libby offered some more insight of the activation pattern for holding in the front, while I exercised restraint during Razia's C&C session.

I realised today that my former job offered similar challenges. Systems own a specific structure, which offers a certain functionality. The use of the system feeds back to its structure and functionality. As system administrator I analyzed networks in order to increase their efficiency and often functionality. I had to test any change before implementing it, a bit like chairwork. And like with the current work, I rather aimed for long-term solutions taking the use into account than looking for a quick fix.

Student meeting

I walked over my heels in my turn with Libby, and I just needed to convince me that I can do so. I guess I can figure out heaps of avoidance pattern once I can use my left foot in normal ways.

We did a lot of hands on work in the group with David, and although it takes still some effort to stay in myself, I like it more and more. As long as I don't care whether I can 'listen' with my hands, I can use the stimulus of another body to maintain my directions.

The student meeting went quite okay, just in 'Alexander time'. However, Michael and I managed to put our criticism about Razia C&C sessions forward. I realise more and more how much I expected General Semantics as our communication module.

We had more hands-on with Jenny, and again I noticed the importance of my own use when using my hands. We played with taking an arm and a shoulder, and it helped a lot toi experience this on the table and doing yourself.

Counselling and communication

The day started with a bit of a surprise - Libby helped me experiencing some significant lengthening in the thoracic area. The pull back of the shoulders might as well belong to a holding pattern around my hips, I gradually get more sensitivity to feel the weight travelling through my body, although I didn't get to the heels yet.

We had the first C&C session with Razia, a psycho therapist and Alexander teacher. She stressed the importance of a gentle approach to enable an interactive communication and lined out some simple ways to achieve this. As a teacher our listening skills have to exceed our talking skills, without sucessfull communication no rapport can happen.

The exercises made me aware of some of known communication flaws, like my impatience while listening. The feedback from Jane and Kaz offered new insights. Jane attested me good reinforcement skills, but noted also the difference between this exercise and my usual ways of talking. She can see different tensional patterns in my face when I'm listening and when I'm preparing to say something, while Kaz noted more nervousness when the questions became more personal.