Saturday, 27 September 2014
A
blog about why some anatomy basics are useful in coordination work.
Welcome to the
blog. We’re starting right away, so get comfy to read.
Let’s breathe fully and deeply once together, just so we’re both on the
same page.
Ok. Let’s start.
Today’s blog will
try to explain why I believe it’s important to know
some basic anatomy in any attempt at trying to correct postural issues.
I’ll be happy if by the time you’ve finished reading you are able to recognize anatomical knowledge as something alive, in
constant development, something that grows from evolving ideas and sensory
information.
What attracts you
to the study of anatomy?
To beging with,
let’s recap the paradigm from which we’ll
look at the issue.
Unity: we learn with
our mind and with our bodies, and we consider the body as an integrated whole.
Use-Function-Structure:
we look at anatomy (structure) in relation to what function it performs,
remembering that our use affects both.
The Coherence in our Design:
everything in our anatomical design has a reason for being there.
Interferences to Accurate Perception:
our ideas about our bodies and the feelings and sensations we get from it don’t
always coincide, and sometimes our ideas are way off-center.
How above
What: It’s more importante to understand how it works,
how the bits and pieces relate to each other and to the whole, than to fill
ourselves up with anatomical data and trivia that we cannot comprehend nor make
practical use of.
The
force of Habit: Old ideas die hard, like weeds… they
come back again and again every time we let our guard down.
Let’s now
consider why it’s a good idea to study some basic
anatomy.
But before moving on, yawn and stretch. If
we hold one attitude of mind and body for too long, our bodies and brains go
numb. Move your tissues a bit to allow oxygenated blood to return to them.
Great. Let’s
continue.
Does knowing anatomy guarantee I’ll
have good posture?
No. If knowing anatomy automatically made you an
elegantly poised individual, then all doctors, anatomists, physiotherapists and
P.E. teachers would be paragons of good posture and carriage. Sadly, this is
not the case.
What’s the use of studying
anatomy then?
1. Good posture is a matter of
coordination. If you’re not
one of those naturally (and unconsciously) well-coordinated people, then you’ll
have to learn conscious coordination. In order to do this, you need to be able to feel where your different body
parts are and what they’re doing in relation to each other. And for this
you’ll need to know your most important bits and
how they feel.
2. Knowing basic anatomy (name, shape and feel of the main
bones and joints) gives you a common language to be able to follow instructions
in an intelligent way.
Even if
you rank among the naturally well-coordinated, it’s not a bad idea to know how you’re
doing it, for the following 4 reasons:
a) In case you lose
it and want to get it back.
b) In case you get
stuck in your progress in any physical discipline you practice.
c) In case you want
to explain or teach someone else how you do what you do.
d) To open yourself
up to other possibilities and choices you may not imagine you have.
Our bodies are
fascinating universes waiting to be explored.
This is all for now.
See you next time.
Victoria
Saturday, 20 September 2014
A blog about the importance of stretching and
mobilizing.
Hi! How are you today? Good to see you around! Today we have a special
blog.
But first; let us take a moment to fully arrive. Get comfy
and share with me a few seconds of quietude, let us close our eyes and breathe
deeply three times.
I like to give myself every so often a respite of inner silence, just so
that I can better acknowledge that a new action is about to begin. It’s a way
of honoring every new beginning. It also allows me to connect with the purpose
of this new encounter, which would be hard to do if the inertia and noise of
what came before was still active in me.
The purpose of this blog is to clarify why it’s
important to mobilize daily all our tissues and joints.
I’d feel satisfied if at the end of your reading you feel a little more
inspired to move your joints daily… even if you don’t start doing so right
away.
So, knowing what this blog is about, what is your purpose for being here?
I’ll begin by revising the fundamental principles that
underlie what I’ll suggest as a daily practice.
Then I’ll tell you a little about:
- why it’s important to move your
joints daily
- what joints you should be moving
- how you should move your joints
Whenever you actually do this mobilization work, I
suggest you remember that:
1. You’re a Unity: All your tissues are connected, which is why when you move one part of
your body it is inevitably having an effect in the whole. Try therefore to be
aware of your whole body as you move a part of it.
2. Your Use, Your Functions and Your Structure are
all interrelated: Remember that body and mind are also a
unity, which is why the quality of your attention and your thoughts will be
affecting the quality of your tissues and the degree of tension in them.
3. If you Remove
Interferences Everything becomes Easier: When your
tissues and joints are tight, contracted and lacking space for free movement
and expression, all actions that you undertake will require a lot more effort
and tension. As you start gaining space and mobility in your joints, your
physical and mental output will increase with half the effort you are exerting
today.
4. Interferences are spotted
as Perception becomes more Precise: The more
perceptive you become, the more you’ll discover about your own functioning, and
hence the better able you’ll be to catch your habits as they come in to
interfere.
5. The Key to raising your
Sensory Appreciation is keeping your Curiosity Alive: Your habits will want to make you believe that you
already know everything about a certain action. Do not allow them to misguide
you so. There is always something new to learn, one new layer to peel, from
even the simplest action.
Why is it important to move your
joints daily?
Cats, dogs, horses, toddlers to it instinctively and regularly.
Even you do it occasionally. A good yawn and stretch after a long day’s
work.
The body and mind do so to self-regulate, especially after they have been
fixed in one same position or attitude for a long time.
Mobilizing your structures with conscious awareness
will also help you to:
1) rediscover
the movement possibilities of your body;
2) recognize
the effect of having a limber, loose and flexible body on every level of your
being;
3) calming
your mind and teaching it to inhabit the body, improving your ability to hold and
focus your attention.
.
What joints should be moved?
The ideal,
of course, is to move all of them in all possible directions and ranges.
Observe
how dogs and cats do it, how they stretch, yawn, roll-over and around, twist
and shake all over, and go on with their day.
If you
prefer a more detailed guide, you can use the following:
Legs and
Feet:
- tense
and stretch your toes and feet
- rotate
your ankles
- bend and
straighten your knees
- allow
your leg to loosely rotate in the hip socket, making circles inwards and
outwards.
Arms and
Hands:
- tense
and stretch your fingers and hands
- rotate
your wrists
- bend and
straighten your elbows
- - allow
your arms to loosely rotate in your shoulder joints, making circles inwards and
outwards.
Head and
Neck:
- gently
say “yes”, “no” and “maybe” with your head, as if you were drawing lines and arcs
with your nose in the air.
- Remember
that your head meets your neck at the midpoint between your ears, right in the
center of your head. As you move your head be aware of that pivoting point.
Eyes and
Mouth:
- Squeeze
your eyes and your jaw and then open them wide.
- Yawn deep
and wide and unabashedly.
- Think of
something funny or sweetly pleasurable and allow that memory to bring a true
smile to your face, one that shines in your mouth and eyes.
Trunk:
- Interlace
the fingers of your hands, straighten your arms, and stretch forward, up,
slightly back, sideways and twisting around side to side.
How should you move your joints?
This series of gently stretches and movements can be practiced by anyone.
The important thing is to do it consciously aware
of each movement.
Remember to breathe. When we concentrate sometimes we hold our breaths, and this generates unnecessary
tension in our systems. Breathe freely and in rhythm with each movement.
If you do the full practice, remember to take
frequent breaks to rest body and mind between one exercise and the next.
If you are not used to taking your attention into your body, the practice can
be at first quite tiring. So allow your body and mind to wander a bit between
exercises, and then gently rein them back in for the next set.
Ok, that’s all for today.
Stretch. Yawn. Make it big, exaggerated and noisy.
Get rid of the cricks, cobwebs and lethargy.
Expand, contract and expand again, like an acordion.
See you next time.
Victoria
Saturday, 13 September 2014
A blog about the basis of the work in the Alexander
Technique
Hello. Welcome to the blog.
Before we begin, take a few seconds to get comfortable to read.
Ready?
Good. Now, close your eyes and allow a deep inhale
to happen, filling you up with air, and exhale, long and sweetly, emptying your
lungs of all residual waste. Repeat the cycle 2 more times.
Now we’re really
ready. Let’s begin.
Today’s blog is
about the 5 fundamental ideas (or beliefs) that
explain the work we do with the Alexander Technique.
My objective is
to share these ideas with you in the briefest and clearest way possible.
But before you go
on reading, consider:
What do you want
to get out of this blog? Is your objective aligned with what I am offering?
The Alexander
Technique has its own fundamental principles (the full list appears at the very
end of this blog). All these principles are in some way included in the 5 key
ideas I will explain. Working with these ideas as a platform implied a particular
“way of being and perceiving” in this world.
The 5 key ideas are:
1. The indivisible unity of the organism.
2. Use is a constant that affects the structure and
its functioning.
3. The right thing does
itself if you remove the interferences.
4. Use improves by improving the quality of perception.
5.
Change happens when we understand the mechanism and force of habit.
Let’s explain the reach of eash idea.
1. The indivisible unity of the organism.
- Body and Mind are inseparable.
This implies that what happens in the body is
a reflection of an idea, and vice-versa.
- You cannot change a part without altering
the whole in the process.
This applies both to the interrelationship
between body and mind, and to the interrelationship between parts of the body
itself, or between ideas.
2. Use is a constant that affects the structure and
its functioning.
- We use ourselves (body and mind) constantly.
Living means using our body and mind all the
time. “Using” yourself implies “directing” the functioning of the structures in
your body and mind, (in much the same way that “using” a pencil” implies “directing”
its trajectory along a surface).
- The way we use ourselves changes us (for
good or evil).
The way we use our bodies and minds affects
their functioning and their structures.
3. The right thing does
itself if you remove the interferences.
- The structural “design” of our body-mind
system is “coherent” for the functions it has to perform.
That is, everything in your body-mind system
has a reason for being there, an inherent logic. The most efficient thing to do
is to use the structure according to its “design-logic”.
- Given the correct conditions, the design works
efficiently and effectively.
When we give ourselves conditions that favour
the logic of our design and we use ourselves respecting that logic, we do not
waste energy in unnecessary actions that do not server our main purpose. We
therefore have all our energy available to achieve that which we really want.
4. Use improves by improving the quality of perception.
- Perception is an act of consciousness which
associates and idea to a sensation.
This means that a big part of our problems of
functioning and of structure have their root in an incorrect interpretation of
sensory data. We are ignorant of our own design. If we work on this
coordination of ideas with sensations, we have a chance of improving our use.
- The way we perceive (interpret) quickly
becomes a habit (automatic response), and stops requiring our conscious processing
of sensations.
This
means that the basis of any work in chaning our use is to first make
conscious that which has become unconscious. In this way we are able to uncover
which ideas and sensations (interpretations) are at the foundation of our
reactions.
5.
Change happens when we understand the mechanism and force of habit.
- Habits are strong because they require no
conscious thought-energy to be executed.
Habits are an automatic, a pre-set, ready-to-be-used
response for specific stimuli. Habits of thought and action make up our lives
and guide our daily actions.
- To overcome a habit, conscious thought-energy
has to be applied every time we encounter the stimulus to action.
In order to do so, one has to first be aware
of the habit, and then apply enough conscious thought-energy to undo the
automatic response and guide the new response. One has to be ready to do this
every time the stimulus presents itself; so patience, self-compassion and the
ability to laugh at oneself are requisite.
This is all for today.
Any questions, comments or doubts, you can
write them down in the space for comments below, or send them to me in an email
to vstanham@gmail.com
See you next time.
Victoria
--
List of the Principles of the
Alexander Technique
- Psychophysical Unity & Unity of the Organism
- Use of the Self affects Functioning of the Self
- Inhibition & Direction
- The force of Habit & The Necessity of Saying ‘No’ to a Stimulus
- The Primary Control
- Unreliable Sensory Appreciation
- The Means-Whereby Principle rather than End-Gaining & The Principle of Non-doing
- Recognition of the need for Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual and of Use as The Universal Constant in Living to achieve Man’s Supreme Inheritance
Friday, 5 September 2014
On 15:27 by Unknown in Change No comments
Hello! You’ve arrived at the blog.
Take a
moment to fully arrive.
Allow your body to arrive: let go of the muscular effort you used to arrive here... no need
to use that much effort and tension to read.
Allow your mind to arrive: is your attention
here, on what you’re reading? Or are you still thinking about what you
read a moment ago or of what you have to do after reading this blog?
Allow your emotional state to arrive: your emotions will tell
you what your gut feeling this blog is, but only if you react to the present stimulus. If you’re still reacting to what
happened before, or you’re anticipating a reaction to what will happen next,
how will you know what your true reaction to the present situation really is?
Have
you arrived? Good. Welcome to the blog.
This blog is
about the sequence used in the Alexander
Technique to foster a process of changing
habits. The purpose of this blog is to clarify the sequence of overlapping
steps involved in a process of conscious change.
As teacher
and student of the Alexander Technique I see this sequence develop in my own
process and in that of my students. However, since the
sequence is not always self-evident, our change
process may appear chaotic.
Learning
to recognize the inherent direction within the chaos gives us a measure of
peace… and a certain degree of control: we are able to then stop interfering with the natural order
of things.
I’d like to
show you one possible natural sequence in a process
of change in the hopes that you’ll be able to recognize
at what stage you are today and which is your next logical step to allow.
But first, you must choose your question about your process.
You are going to receive a lot of information, both external (from this blog,
from your surroundings) and internal (thoughts, emotions, muscular reactions). Having a clear question will help you organize this information,
keeping what’s useful to you today, and letting the rest go.
Remember
to check periodically your reactions (physical, mental, emotional) to what you’re reading. Your
reaction provides you most of the data you need to process and organize. Also, take note of where your attention goes, since your
reaction and the focus of your attention are intimately linked.
The
structure of this blog follows the structure of an Alexander Technique lesson,
and therefore of a process of change.
1)
We arrive. We arrive because we have a
question to which we seek and answer. But in order to receive that
answer, we need to honor the place where we came
looking for it, we need to open up to listen to what is happening in the present moment.
2) We clarify
our purpose. This implies coming into
contact with our need, but also adjusting
our request to what the context is able to provide. In other words, it’s
no use asking for a vegan dish at the butcher’s.
3) We dive
into the process. This part has two main components. One of them is
provided by the seeker: his attention. The
other is provided by the person in charge of the practice space: the practice proposal.
The
nature of the proposal will depend on the stage of the process which the seeker is at.
First: We
establish a common language. We need to familiarize ourselves with the
tool before starting to use it.
Second:
We apply
the language to a simple action. Once we are familiar with the tool we can start using it for simple and
controlled tasks.
Third:
We apply
the language to a more complex action. As we become more familiar and adept at using the tool, we
start adding variables, experimenting with combinations that gradually look
more and more like “real life” situations, where the stimuli are varied and
unpredicatable.
Fourth:
We apply
the language in “real life”. Real life is where we find out how much we’ve advanced down the path of
change; it will throw light on the areas where we’re still in the dark. It is
therefore the best field in which to harvest our next question to feed our
process.
And
every so often, in
between stages, or within each stage itself, we
stop to rest, to allow the information to settle, to go “click!”. These resting stops are essential, do not skip
them. Use them to: a) evaluate your progrees; and to b) decide your next step. But most of all, use them
to: c) celebrate your victories, however
small they may seem.
So,
which stage are You at?
See you next time.
Victoria
Sunday, 31 August 2014
Hello! Welcome to the blog. How are you?
I mean it, and the answer should be important to you. Take a few seconds of outer and inner stillness to check how you are right now
(physically, mentally, emotionally) and to decide if you’re well disposed to
reading this blog.
This
is a blog about the Alexander Technique in its relation to changing
habitual reactions (physical, mental, emotional).
The purpose
of this blog is for you to experiment with different ideas about how to do
things differently, o how not to do them entirely.
My name is Victoria Stanham, and I’m a teacher of the Alexander Technique. I
spend most of my days investigating and experimenting with the ideas I share in
this blog.
My
objective for today is for you to have a new
experience with attention management. I’d also like to offer you at
least one new idea of how to organize your thoughts
that is directly applicable to changing habits with the hopes that it
may answer a question you have on the subject.
If you’re
interested, take a minute to clarify your question. Make it concise and clear.
As
you continue reading, check regularly what effect it is having on your degree
of physical, mental or emotional tension. Try to note if what you’re reading makes you nervous, angry,
calm, confused, or whatever.
Take
also note if you’re attention wanders off topic, and you start reading in automatic mode, without
processing the new information. If this happens to you, stop, breathe and bring
your attention back to the present action. If your attention insists on
wandering to another topic, re-evaluate if it’s worthwhile to keep reading or
if perhaps you should be taking care of that nagging business on your mind.
The ability to monitor
our attention and our bodily reactions to stimuli in our surroundings is at the
foundation for our success (or lack thereof) in any attempt to change a habit.
A
habitual reaction follows this sequence:
1.
I perceive a stimulus (conscious or subconsciously).
2.
I respond with an automatic action that requires no conscious thought.
Sometimes
this is good and useful. Thank goodness we don’t have to reason our way through
every single action we undertake daily. That would be exhausting and very
inefficient!
But
sometimes, we realize that our way of reacting is causing us trouble, and we
may want to change it. This, we soon realize, is not easy because habits are
strong and “comfortable” (however detrimental they may be to our wellbeing).
So, in order
to be successful in our enterprise, we need to learn
to stop before we react, and thus give ourselves time to decide what
response we truly want to give.
The problem is
that we are not always aware of the stimuli that trigger our automatic reactions,
and we only realize we’re reacting in our undesired way when we’re already more
than half-way down the road.
The solution
to this problem is to learn to perceive the signals
that indicate we’re already preparing a response.
Our
responses to stimuli start way before we become consciously aware of them. Our
brains are constantly anticipating, building our responses based on previous
experiences of similar stimuli.
Anticipation
manifests itself as a state that is simultaneously physical, mental and
emotional. It is perhaps easier for us to note this preparatory response in our
bodies (changes in heart-rate, breathing rate, muscle tension, skin or gut
sensations, etc.).
As
we learn to become aware of these anticipatory reactions, we start to have the
possibility of changing them.
And in order
to become aware of these anticipatory responses, we
need to become more aware of our bodies.
How does one go about doing that?
This is where the help of a guide becomes invaluable. If you’ll accompany me, I’ll be
happy to show you the roads I’ve already walked.
So,
in brief, the new reaction that we want to establish would follow this
sequence:
1.
I perceive the stimulus (consciously or subconsciously).
2.
I perceive my anticipatory reaction… and let it go.
3. I remember my purpose.
4.
I re-evaluate my response options.
5.
I decide on one response.
6.
I execute my choice, all the time keeping my greater purpose present and
monitoring my response.
You’ve
reached the end of today’s blog. It’s now your time to evaluate.
Has
your quesiton been answered?
See you next time.
Victoria
Wednesday, 20 August 2014
On 20:01 by Unknown in Change, Creating Space, Exercises, Inhibition, Keep Calm, Stopping No comments
You’ve
arrived at the blog. Welcome.
Before we begin, let us
take a minute to come to internal and external stillness.
Sit down as
comfortably upright as you’re able. Relax your eyes and your jaw.
Become aware
of your breathing. Allow the air to go in and out without trying to directly
control it, allowing your breathing to be just the way it is right now.
Little by
little we’re going to let go of what we were doing before arriving here: the
previous webpage, what we were reading, what we were thinking.
Every action has a
certain degree of inertia.
We are like
a bucket full of water. We thrust our bodies and minds to and fro, and all our
internal environment (physical, mental and emotional) becomes agitated, like
waves in a storm.
Now we want
to start something new, we’re going to read a new blog, it’s a new action,
distinct from the one that preceded it.
Stopping before
starting something new allows us to give the new action its due space
(physical, mental and emotional)… or to simply realize that we don’t want to or
don’t need to undertake it at all.
Do you
really want to read this blog? You won’t know until you stop, allow the storm
of residual activity inside of you to quiet down, and take a moment to listen
to yourself.
That is why
we bring out bodies to stillness for a moment, and we bring our senses to our
inner environment for a check in. Even though we have brought the bucket to a
standstill, the water inside it takes a tad longer to quiet down and pool.
Bring your
attention to the sounds around you, those at no more than arms length, and then
those a bit further. Take your attention to furthest sound you can perceive.
Let go of that sound and bring your attention back to the space around you. Now
take it into your inner space. Listen for the sounds of your heart, your
breathing, your guts.
Without losing that connection to your inner sounds,
expand your attention up to where you find it adequate and comfortable in order
to read the rest of this blog.
With this act of
stopping and coming back to your senses, you are preparing yourself for
receiving, opening up for perceiving, for taking note of how you are right now
and how you feel about what you’re reading.
You are
already reacting to the stimulus of these words.
If the water
in your bucket is still, you’ll be able to notice what that reaction is.
What wave is
stirring your water? Is it the response you want to give? Is your response appropriate for your desired objective, for achieving that which you came here to achieve?
No response is correct
of incorrect. All are possible and valid. The question is not one of right or
wrong, but one of useful or not for achieving your goal. Does your response
help you or hinder you?
Perhaps your
response is taking energy away from your objective, funneling it instead
towards other needs. Perhaps those needs are valid and deserve to be listened
to and heeded. Or maybe they are just part of an old habit, an automatic
response whose expiration date has long passed.
If you are able to ‘see’
your response to the stimulus, you’re ready to let it go and give way to the
next logical, organic action that is in line with your objective.
Working with the
Alexander Technique is based on this premise. We cannot change what we cannot ‘see’.
We cannot change what we don’t understand. And the first step to changing
something isn’t doing something new. The first step is recognizing what we’re
doing and choosing to not do it any longer, and thus give way for the next
action.
Some day
perhaps, we’ll be able to match the inside with the outside. Bucket and water
will move in such harmony that there will be no separation, no storm. We won’t
need to stop our bodies first in order to stop the water. Stillness will be
part of our movement, and harmonious movement will be present in our stillness.
But we’re
not there yet. Today we’re at step one. Today we quiet the external, to give a
chance to the internal to come to stillness too. And that’s
alright. That’s the first step. All journeys start here.
So go back to your
breathing for a moment. Allow the air to come freely in and freely out.
You’re ready for your
next action. You’ve prepared the ground, you’ve quieted the internal and
external waters. You’ve given yourself time. You have given yourself time and space to decide.
What
do you want to do? What do you need to
stop doing to allow yourself to go in that direction?
See you next time.
Victoria
--
Victoria Stanham, Alexander Technique teacher and Pilates instructor.
I study developmental movement, taking great inspiration from the organic and free movement of the animal kingdom.
My goal is to achieve comfort, efficiency, elegance and balance, both in movement and in stillness, according to our physical, mental and emotional design.Friday, 15 August 2014
You are choosing to read this blog.
Perhaps the
topic interests you; or a friend you trust shared it; or you know me and like
what I write; or you just want to read something to pass the time and the title
caught your attention.
Regardless
of why your’re here, the choice to be here
and read this is yours.
Are you
clear about your purpose? What do you expect to get from this investment of
your time and energy? Are you reading by habit or by conscious choice?
Take a few seconds get
clear about this. It’s important. You’ll soon see why…
I’ve taken
countless lessons and workshops in my life. I didn’t take advantage of some of the
good ones all I’d like to have done; nor did I drop the bad ones as soon as I should
have done. And all because I wasn’t clear what for
and why I was there in the first place.
Why do we go to lessons
and workshops (or read blogs for that matter)?
Because some
limitation is hindering us from enjoying that which
we enjoy doing (dancing, singing, riding horses, taking care of the
grand kids), and we want to help the situation.
Why do we choose a
particular lesson or workshop?
Because it’s
related to our objective (we may be aware of
this or not) and it fits our available resources
(motivation, time, money, energy, knowledge).
How do we know if we’ve
chosen the right lesson or workshop for us?
We can’t
know until we’ve tried it. But if we are clear
about our objective we can evaluate if the lesson or workshop is helping
us go in the direction that we want to go.
Why is it so important
to be clear about our objective?
Being clear
about your goals makes you an active participant
in your learning process. If your ultimate goal isn’t the guide of your
actions, you run the risk of losing focus and
falling into old habits. So ask yourself, is what I’m doing here getting
me closer or pulling me away from my goal?
What if I don’t realize
if I’m moving nearer of further away from my goal?
Take a few
seconds to analyze if your uncertainty is a product of the content of the
lesson, the form and context of the lesson, or both.
1. If the problem is the content of the lesson (it’s not the “take” on the subject
that you were looking for, or the workshop is not about what you were
expecting, or you’re just not understanding what’s going on) but the form
and context is fine, check with yourself to see if you are able to open up
to learning something new.
It may even
be that you’re actually getting the answer you need, but it’s not coming in the
concrete form you were imagining it would come (hence the confusion). If you
have an inkling that this might be the case, suspend judgment until later. You’re
already there, and as long as you’re comfortable with the proceedings and
having a good time, there’s nothing to lose by exploring a new take on your
problem. At the end of the process check with yourself once again to find out
if you actually gained your original goal, or perhaps some other unexpected
goal!
2. If the problema is the form or context in which the lesson
is given (you
disklike the place, atmosphere or teacher, it’s cold, or whatever) but the content
is good, check with yourself to gauge how much you’re able to “stand”
the unfortunate circumstances in order to gain your goal. If the situation is
not all that bad (or it is easily fixable) ignore the slight discomfort and
hold on to what’s good and important for you.
But if you’re
uncomfortable to the point that you’re getting angry or scared for your
physical, emotional or mental integrity, perhaps it’s high time you get out of
there… fast. I’m sure there are other far less traumatic ways of gaining your
end than your current choice of lesson.
3. If the problem is the form or context in which the lesson
is given and, to top it off, the content is not what you hoped it would be, there’s nothing to think about
really, get out of there, go home. Surely there’s far better ways you could be
using your time and energy rather than making yourself stick to something you’re
neither interested in nor liking how it’s taught.
You’ve reached the end
of the blog. This
means that the form, context and/or content of it, wasn’t all that bad. J
Now it’s the
time to analyze, evaluate and decide if it’s worth your while waiting for our
next meeting on the next blog, writing to me with your questions, or sharing
this blog with a friend.
See you next time.
Victoria
--
Victoria Stanham, Alexander
Technique teacher and Pilates instructor.
I study developmental movement,
taking great inspiration from the organic and free movement of the animal
kingdom.
My goal is to achieve comfort,
efficiency, elegance and balance, both in movement and in stillness, according
to our physical, mental and emotional design.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)










