Transcript for:
AT Book Club Session 1

Good. Good. So, welcome everybody. This is really exciting. I haven't launched a book study club for a year. So, it's just so nice to see you all and um lots of experienced teachers as well present and beginner teachers and trainees and pupils as well and people who've never taken an Alexander lesson in their life because there's nowhere nearby. So, all very exciting. We've got a complete range of ability. So, there's going to be lots to learn from each other. Um it's always makes a great a great m makes for a great mix I think. So um let's start with a quick round of names and because there's so many of you I'm limiting everybody to 30 seconds maximum. Please do not tell me your life story. I would love to hear your life story but not today. Um otherwise it just takes up all the time. So if you start going above 30 seconds I'm going to wave at you madly and ask you to stop. So, and I don't mean to be rude, but some people I know the the life story just bursts out before you think about it. So, um just with that proviso, if you would like to give me your name or give us all your name and where you are in the world and whether you're an experienced teacher or a beginner teacher or a traininee or a pupil or you've never had a lesson in your life and also very very very briefly if you're a pianist or a yoga teacher or a mime artist or a storyteller something a oneliner of what you do. just a oneliner then that would be lovely too. Um I'm going to go around in order. Um Christine, your top left on my screen. Would you like to go first please? Okay. Christine Robbins from Oregon on the west coast of the US and uh I'm a musician and uh um oh I'm I'm a transfer from the previous uh book clubs which started back in August I believe. So I was feeling overwhelmed with some of the more advanced stuff. Keep it short. Keep it short. You're a pupil. Done. Pupil. Thank you. Um, Wendy, can you unmute? Bottom left, I think. Can you hear me now? Yes, we can. I live in England. I'm an experienced teacher and I'm a keen pianist. Lovely. Thank you. Aziz, are you muted? I live in Oxford. Um I as as well as being um an Alexander teacher for the last 10 years I've been teaching mindfulness. Lovely. Thank you. Uh Ralph. Uh my name is Rolf. I live in Switzerland in the south part. Um uh I'm an Alexander teacher. um an experienced one and I'm a musician, a flirtist. Yes, thank you. Um an hi, I'm an I live in New York. Um I am an experienced teacher and I'm happy to be here. Thank you. Lovely. I'm so glad you did. An just jumped in last night. Yeah, last minute. Just got your book. Just jumped in. Lovely. Joe and then Adam. Okay. Me first. Um Adam's wife. Well, um I'm just retired from being a teacher. We live in the south of France and I've never done any Alexander technique. I've heard about it for years and years and years. Um I sing so it could help me there and I do yoga and I'm just generally very interested. Lovely. Thank you, Adam. I I'm a an author, a writer. Uh used to be a mime artist many years ago, but now just an author and um a pupil. A pupil. A pupil. Yeah, we're both pupils. Yeah, that's true. Thank you. Um Hank. Hi everyone. uh phoning in from Cape Town, South Africa and I have done about 2 years of Alexander technique training with a few other teachers before and my world that I play in is a lot around personal development and um I like movement studies. I like to go dancing as well and so I'm doing it for those purposes. Lovely. Thanks. H Sharon. Hi everyone. Um, I'm Sharon from Dumbar in East Lorian. I'm not an Alexander teacher. I have had several lessons. Um, I'm a project analyst working in the corporate world. However, I'm like a sponge and want to soak up as much as I can for improvement in my daily life, but also for my beautiful horse for riding. Hopefully, I can learn some proper ways to be super. The horse will love you. Um, Brenda, I forgot to ask you to introduce yourself. Hi everybody. Um, my name is Brenda. I'm joining you from Nairobi, Kenya. And I'm Pelop's assistant. Nice to meet you all. Great. Thank you. Brenda is made this course possible. Frankly, I would not have been possible without her. So, thank you. Um, Christina. Hi, I'm Christina. I'm Danish, but I'm living in Berlin, Germany. and I am a very experienced pupil, I'd say. Uh, and I am in I'm a medical assistant. Thank you, Margie. Hi, I'm from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and although currently I'm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and uh I'm a teacher. Thank you. Attilla. Yes. Hi everyone. My name is Aila and I live in Hungary on the countryside. The town is called Saged. It's in the saddest part of Hungary. And uh uh I play a couple of instruments. I'm really interested in learning uh playing uh different instruments but only as a hobby. Thank you. Thank you. Um Mong or do you prefer us to say MJ? Which do you prefer? Either way is fine, but it's Mong or MJ. Um I'm yeah I'm um in central of Massachusetts in the US. Um I certified only three a little over three years. I play the piano. Thank you. Yes. Um Mary, I'm in North Carolina. Um United States and I I graduated I was certified I don't know a year or two ago year a little over a year ago and um personally I I do spoken poetry. Yeah. I I am practicing teaching online really. Yeah. And you're another one who's hopped from various you're joining us from group four and then group six and then group seven and now you're online as well. keen student. Yeah, I hate to say it, but I'm dyslexic, so I I I feel overwhelmed easily. Yeah, you you do brilliantly. Thank you, Nama. Hi. Um, I just wanted to say that I've been a student of the Alexander technique for 30 years, a pupil. Um, I've done lots of practice on myself and I'm a piano teacher. I've been teaching many years and incorporate incorporate this Alexander technique into my lessons into my piano lessons. So all my uh the children that I teach they know about the Alexander technique, they know the principles and I've recently been qualified to teach as well Alexander. Thank you. Um, Agnes. Hello. So, my name is Agnes. I'm from Barcelona and I graduated as an Alexander teacher in 2014. So, I apply the Alexander technique to um vocal interpretation. I teach singing. I'm a singer and um and yes, sometimes I also work with musicians. Lovely. Thank you very much, Leslie. Yeah, I'm Leslie Finkeel from Cornwall in the UK. qualified in 1998 and um I teach and train horses but um coming from an Alexander point of view so I'm not a conventional teacher and trainer it's always from the Alexander perspective um and this will be my second book study club yeah you're going around you're going around again it's fantastic I just well I just love coming back to the beginning all the time just keep coming back to beginning. Yeah. Great thing. Thomas. Thomas. Hello. I'm from Germany, close to Frankfurt. I'm an Alexander teacher. I'm a physiootherapist and an acupressure teacher. [Music] And Susan. Yeah. Hi, I'm Susan. I'm from North Carolina and um I'm I qualified to teach in ' 92. um but was in other pursuits in the fine arts and I'm I've gotten back to teaching in the last 10 years. Lovely. Thank you. Um Ble. Hello everyone. Um my name is Ble. I'm joining from Berlin, Germany and I am a newly qualified teacher. Thank you. Alexand taken as red here. Thank you. Um, Peter, thanks Penelopey and hello to everybody. I'm joining from Dublin in Ireland and I've been exploring as a pupil since probably about 25 years ago off and on. I'm a musician and I used to play stringed instruments but can't play them for the last 15 years because of finger joint issues, but I play the accordion. That's me. Thank you, Kevin. Hi. Um, I'm Kevin. I live near Watford in England. Um, I trained as an Alexander teacher probably about 30 years ago. Qualified in 95 or 94 sometime around then. I've never taught and has since then have um worked in the IT industry for big government departments, that kind of thing. And I'm just with curiosity kind of gently returning towards the technique and seeing what it reminding myself what it is and what's there. So that's kind of where I'm at. Lovely. Thank you, Genie. I am in London and I qualified 2014. So I'm an Alexander teacher and meditation teacher. Thank you. Um, Salem, if that's how you pronounce it. Yes, it is. Um, my name is Senam. Uh I am originally from Turkey living in Dublin in Ireland. Uh I am a storyteller and writer and I don't have any um experience in Alexander technique. Thank you. And Sharon, we've done we've come around we've come around full circle. Sharon, you've it's it's it's put you in a different place. Thank you very much. Okay. Well, we have a really international group here. That's um which is which is lovely. And um so I'm Penelopey as you probably all gathered by now. And um my own journey to this began in um 1983 when I my back seized up while doing a PhD and that took me to my first Alexander lessons. I knew straight away that uh this is what I wanted to do with my life accepted. Took a bit to get my head around that because I thought I wanted to be a research scientist. But um after a few months I went creeping off to a training course to take a look and um ended up leaving the PhD and um knocking around for a couple of years and then training. So I was qualified in 188 1989. Sorry, I'm doing the history research as well. So I ate I say 1889 without thinking. Um yeah and so um yeah it's I after training my youth fell apart and that took me to Miss Goldie who completely revolutionized the way I think and the way I work and a lot of her work that that's the springboard for the book as I'm sure most of you know. Um, so I've been running the book study club since the book was published in um, four years ago now. And you're group nine. So when you get communications from me, it will often say just BSC9. And the groups just keep getting better and better. We just keep having a richer experience. Um, there's quite a lot more work I've discovered along the way with the help of all the teachers and pupils I've worked with over the last four years that has further developed the work. So, there'll be lots more to share that isn't in the book, lots of clarification what is in the book and I'm hoping it's going to be a really exciting journey that we take together. And you do ask questions. There's no such thing as a stupid question ever. Um, if you have a question, it's almost certainly somebody else's question as well. So, just put your hand up and ask it. Um, before we go any further, let's just sort study buddies and um because it's always marvelous if you take a study buddy because this book is, as you know, it's completely experiential. It's not completely, but there's a lot of experiential stuff in it, and it's really good to try it out. If you're a teacher, then you're working towards learning to verbalize instructions in a way you probably didn't on your training school. And even if you did learn that on your training school, there'd be perhaps different instructions that we're doing here. So, learning to make those your own and learning to um also observe observe what your pupil is doing and get them also to feedback what they're aware of. And when you do observe what they're doing, discovering really working out what instructions you want to give them and then seeing whether it makes a difference and then getting them to verbalize back. these a lot of these skills we didn't learn on training schools and it really helps to clarify the process that you're learning both for yourself and uh for teaching it. If you're a pupil, it's fantastic to go through that with another teach with a teacher who's practicing on you. Um and if you're working with a fellow pupil, um there's a couple of husband and wife teams here, then you know, you'll be working it out together. So, it's great to have a study buddy to to to, you know, knock it around with and work it out together. I know some people just will not have time in their lives for that. And there's quite a few people who've worked at this point without study buddies. That's a personal choice. It's absolutely fine. But if you can, then do. So, we're going to see if we can pair people up now and those who want and then um if that partnership doesn't work out because partnerships don't always work out. Sometimes personality clashes, sometimes simply time zone differences and you can't get the times together, then get back to me and we'll we'll we'll sort it out again. So, um let's start with I know we've got some German speakers. There's Gertrude won't be here till next week and she really wants a German speaker. So, can I have a volunteer? Can we have can everybody who's German German speaking put their hand up? Um who would like um a study buddy? This won't take very long, but it does make a difference. Thomas, do you want a study buddy? Billy, um two participants, who am I seeing? Christina and Bill. Right. And Ralph, marvelous. Good. So, um, Bele, would you Is your English good? Yeah, my my English is quite good. Yes. Good. Can I put you with Gertrude then? Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Lovely. And Ralph, if you would like to work with Christina, who is an experienced pupil, would that be would that be okay with you? Okay. Thank you. Yes. So, that works for you, Christina. Good. Sounds like your decision is made, med dear. Yes. Anyway, another thing. So, um, grid view is not available. You can't see all of us, Mary. Yeah. Okay. Um, you can't you can't see gallery view. No. And it's hard to see hands up and who's interested in not without. Okay. But you're going to partner Susan anyway. Are you or are you? Is that is that Christine Robins? Christine, of course. Of course. So, thank you. Yes. So, Christine and Mary are um that sorted. And of course, Joe and Adam, you're working together. And Peter and Senm also working together. So, um that's now who else shall we start with? So, shall we start with the um the European um and English? Chris Aziz. Um Hank, you'd be in that bracket as well because you're only twoour difference. Um so, who would like a buddy out of that group? And did you see anyone who's also a musician or that you went right when I know her? So, um Aziz, are you after a buddy? you you're muted. Uh I could be, but I would prefer it was with someone that uh lived close enough that we could actually physically make meet up. Right. And you're in London, aren't you? Oxford. Oxford. Okay. Oh gosh. Is anyone close enough to Oxford? Um cuz we've had I think there's London and there's Cornwall, isn't there? So neither of which are very physically useful for you. So London. London is very close to Oxford. Okay. London is close to Oxford. Right. Well, if you're prepared to get on a train. Who was London? Wendy, you're London. I'm in Essex. Printon on sea. So you're the other side of London. Wasn't there somebody? Wasn't there somebody from Watford? Jeie. Oh, and Kevin, you're from Watford. Would you like a um I I I fear I might be in the category of maybe not having enough time around all the other things I'm doing to do justice to that. So, it might be best if I eek out the time to attend these sessions, but I think it might be beyond what I can manage with job and family and stuff to squeeze anything else in. Thank you. Um Jeanie, what about you? You're in London as well. I buddied up with Agnes. Ah, right. And Oxford and London is it's a long distance. Yes. So, Genie and Agnes, that's sorted. Good. Um, Susan, you raised your hand there. No. So, um, I was just waving to Ann. Sorry. Goodness. So, um I think for the moment you're unlucky on that one, Aziz, are you willing to work online with somebody? I I go to London all the time, right? All the time. It's an hour away. So, how about Finton on sea? Does anyone else want to work in person? Is um Finton's a little way out of London, isn't it? Let's park that one for the moment. Nama, where are you? I've forgotten. I'm in Warren Wood, which is just um north north to Barnet. So, just outside Barnett. No. Right. Now, is that practical? Would you like to meet in person, Norma? North London. I don't mind, but um I don't think I'll have the time to travel to Oxford. Um, but you are welcome to come to here and I I work I can offer Friday mornings if that works. Okay. I I I was I was hoping for London because I I go to London all the time. Um but um I have long co so apart from sort of certain beaten tracks and I know how to get there and I know how to I would I would find that I would find that difficult. Yeah. Okay. Um, how about the two of you work online together and see if you can work out something from there? Does that sound practical? I can try. You can try. Yeah. And if you manage the occasional meetup, then that sounds like a bonus. Yeah. This is the problem with international groups. Occasionally people end up in the same town, but rather rarely. Thank you. So, let's see what happens there. Um, Mary, you have a hand up. Yeah. Um, I Susan's just an hour from me and I was wondering what you thought of three people working together occasionally or if she wanted to. I didn't ask her. I just thought I'd jump in and see what you thought first. Susan, I'm inspired by me. Threes threes work nicely when people have their can can get together. Sounds like Christine's agreeable, too. And flexible. I'm flexible. Right. So, we can do online or, you know, we'll see. We'll flex. Yep. Good. Christine, Mary, and um Susan, that's fine. Okay. Now, who else do we have in the UK? Um, we've got Sharon and um who who else would like Sharon, are you up for a or or is your work prohibiting you taking a partner? Um, well, I probably I mean, maybe I'm not quite sure if I will be able to have the time. However, I would probably definitely be only up for online, not meeting in person. Yes. based I'm obviously not far outside of Edinburgh but I but online could potentially work for me. Yeah. So would anyone in the UK Leslie? Oh yes. Well I'm a horse rider so anyone with is experienced teacher with So is that a good is that a good match Leslie and Sharon? Well it's worth a try. Whatever. Absolutely. So, so let's let's put that one down. Good. That's good. Now, put your hand up if you're in the UK, Europe, and you would like a partner. Put put that little um That's uh So, who else have we got? Um Chris, we've got Wendy. So, who who's in Essex and Hank, right? So, can we put Hank and Wendy together perhaps? Where does Hank live? He's in South Africa, but it's only two I think it's two hours is two hours difference, Hank. Or is it one hour difference? Depends on the time of the year. And so towards Ireland, I think it's one hour difference right now and then two hours in the winter. Yes. So that's not Does that sound doable, Wendy? Hank's really good on computers, so he'll sort for you. Sort me out. Yes, I'll have a go with Hank. Thank you. Good. Perfect. Thank you so much. Okay. Now, have we have we caught all the UK folk and Europe folk? Put put your hand up if we haven't. I think that's everybody. Is it? So, now uh the US. Um Oh. Um Attilla, what about you? Um do you have somebody to work with? Uh yeah, I would be I would be open to to try it. I don't know how much time commitment it means like how often would you prefer or would you suggest meeting for how long? The the the ideal is to meet every week for an hour. Um but different um partnerships have found different ways of working. Some work once a fortnight. Um some week work more sporadically than that. There was one keen pair that actually met up for 15 minutes every day, but that's that's exceptional. Um, mostly it's either a week or two weeks depending on, you know, what works for your lives. So, um, and I'm just thinking that you've also got Victoria and Anna and Christina in Hungary who all actually speak your language. Um, let's see if we can find somebody here. But it may be that you need to approach them and say we want because they've already worked out the Hungarian terms for things. Yeah. Yeah. That's actually my next question. You know, is it better to to practice in English or in my, you know, native language to to get used to the Hungarian version of the instructions. Exactly. Well, it is it is good if you can practice in your own language because then you've got it ready to roll with pupils rather than to start from scratch. But um let's see how we go. Do you want to talk because there's a few people not here today. So do you want to talk to your Hungarian colleagues? Sure. Anyone? Yeah. Yeah. Um now the the US we've got me mung and an um Susan is now sorted. Um my eyes are flicking around the screen. Margie. Um, Margie, do you have time? I'm hoping to. And Judy Panning and I since we often work together anyway, we are hoping to do this together. That's splendid. That's lovely. Right, that sorts that. Thank you. That's That's you sorted then. And um Mary, you've put your hands up again. I did. I didn't realize we hadn't gone around the US and I just didn't want to see. No, no, you you you've jumped in. It's fine. Someone else might want to do it. And what about what about you? Um you were Hi. Um yeah, right. Um the same time zone would be helpful. Mijong, do you want to meet? Yeah, Mijang and I know each other, right? Well, that's beautiful. That would be great. That's marvelous. Beautiful. That' be good. Now, who haven't we caught? That's marvelous. So, we've got um I'm just going around my screen. I think that's everybody, isn't it? Is that Have I missed anybody out? Wave at me madly if I've missed you out. No, we're done. Good. Okay, that's fantastic. Well done everybody on that one. Thank you. That's um that's that's And as I say, we'll have a few more people to add next time. Oh, hello. And here is Judy. Good. So, um Judy, hello. Um we've just we've just established that you're paired um with Margie to work together. That's fantastic. Would you like to just tell us where you are in the world, whether you're a teacher and um whether you're um also a yoga teacher or a musician or something? Sure. I am in Iowa in the United States which is in the middle of the country. I am uh certified as an Alexander technique teacher. I certified in December 2023. I don't teach much. I live in the middle of nowhere and nobody has ever heard of this. So I'm trying to get a new thing established and it's taking a long time. Brilliant. Well done. Um I am also I've spent a career as an elementary music teacher. So um that's kind of my other thing. I I do make some music myself. Um but I teach more. I also work with children who have attention problems. Right. So lovely. Thank you Judy. Thank you. Yes. That's marvelous. And um yes, Joe and Adam, Sue could indeed join your group if I mean, I don't know how bad this latest episode is, so we'll see what happens there. But yes, thank you for that. And um good. Okay, so let's dive into the book. Um who's who's managed to read the first who's who's actually got a copy of the book so far? Um yeah, good. Most people. And who's did did the people who haven't manage to find their way on on um online? Kevin, did you I have got a copy of the book, so I'm ready to go. You're you're ready to go. Marvelous. Um and the people who didn't, did you manage to read the first couple of chapters on Amazon? I think that was James and he's not here today. You did. Lovely. Good. Um, if your book hasn't arrived by chapter three, that's when I'll send out PDFs because that isn't um Yeah. Okay. Right. So, any questions before we start from what you've read so far? Anyone got any burning questions um that that occurred to them as they were reading? Nope. So, uh, if they occur to you as you go, then that's fine. Um, so chapter one, as you've probably gathered, just introduces my story and, um, the amazing trip to Borneo, which was life-changing. And it was only years later as I began to think about what I'd seen. But I certainly can remember when I was there, you know, we were we were waiting all morning for these men who were taking us up river to decide which way they were going and they just squatted and they just stayed in that squat for two three hours um talking together and I was like I was watching them and thinking I can't do that and I was a young dancer uh as well as a scientist. It's it was just amazing to see the mobility of everyone. So what's gone wrong in the west? Um you know these people were so mobile right through to old age. You know they all moved that beautifully watching these old ladies on a boat just squatting down standing up again. And it's it's I've now got two grandchildren. Some of you will know I talk about them non-stop. Um they're now two and a quarter and three and a half three and 3/4. They're both now potty trained. Um, and the minute they're put on a potty, it's like it's all wrong, you know? We don't even have to wait to chairs. It's we we get put on this potty and it's it's just all the wrong shapes. And nowadays, if you look at a to a child's toilet seat, there's one of the potties they have that sits sits them back like a reclining chair, puts them straight into a squat into a into a slump backwards, collapses their pelvis back, and I'm I'm there sort of when I'm when I'm pottying them, you know, sit up, sit up, and trying to get them to use themselves well on the toilet because without that, they're setting up all the wrong mechanisms within the pelvis. And the pelvis is so important. Um, here I am talking about toilets right at the beginning. Can you forgive me? Um, and and then they've got, as if that isn't bad enough, they've got toilet seats with handles. Oh, no. And you know, they they they have to they have to have their they have to step up on a step. The step is never high enough, which means that their feet aren't landed. And then they because they're over a hole, they support themselves with their arms. So there they are trying to do a poo, bracing themselves through their arms instead of naturally through a squat. It's like, you know, talk about setting up children completely wrong for life right at the beginning and it's oh, you know, I lie awake at night designing the ideal potty, but it's so we all went through this. We all went through nappies that pushed our legs too far apart. Um, and restricted our movements of the hips. I mean, that's another one. Probably the Borneo kids didn't wear nappies. They just ran around naked. Um, it's there's there's all sorts of factors. And then, of course, we get to school. And, um, it was uh, oh, what's her name's book? I've forgotten it in this moment. um said, "The biggest thing we learn all day at school is to sit still." That's actually the biggest thing we learned. Apart from to use our left brains all the time, we learned to sit still. We learned to ignore our desire to run around, to chat, to talk, to explore, to do all the things and to move, to drink, to pee when we want. All those things we weren't allowed to do. We were taught to ignore the body and just sit and listen to the teacher, which is the last thing the average child wants to do. Um, so it puts us out of whack. And the picture's on page 13. Um, for those of you who got the book, I'm sorry I haven't got this up on the screen, but um, it shows how have I got have I got that on a Oh, I can't find it in a moment. Um, this picture. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, it shows how um the pelvis is put into a tilt if we're sitting forwards and that's going to be pulling the back into too much of a lumbar arch and leaving the front slack. And then it does this to the the top end of us because we've got that too arched. That then rounds the tummy and we we lose the we we get the weakness the the weak muscles across that line. So the glutes we're sitting on the glutes and the hamstrings all day. So they just become like jelly, you know, and and this line becomes too strong. We end up with these hip flexors here overtight and the lower back overtight. So, we get pulled into this arch and when we're sitting and that means that when we stand up, it actually doesn't straighten up anymore. It stays in this arch. And so, everybody thinks that we're supposed to have a great big arch in your back. And it's actually very debatable whether that is true. Um what we actually want is now that's the other baddy of course that everybody goes into where the hand where the um the hips fall back the back then slumps over the neck is way forwards over the body. And again if you consider that when the neck is forward of the body for every 10 degrees forward it puts a 10 pound pressure on the on the neck spine. That means that that neck is putting a 40 lb pressure on the neck spine. That's the weight of a suitcase that you don't even try and lift nowadays. You get the nice men to lift it into the hold of the airplane, but you wouldn't even attempt to lift it. And yet, that's the force you're putting through the top of your neck. Um, and this is of course what we want. We're looking to lengthen it all out at the back and at the front. Lengthen the back and the front here. Open out this. And so everything is then able to be an extension as we sit and at the physical level that is what we are going to spend our time working towards so that we can maintain that extension throughout the body as we're sitting here now. Anyone want to comment on all that before we go any further? And I'm going to sit here until somebody says something. Somebody must have a thought. number. Um just that I um I work with children all the time and I see how how children sit very badly from the age of eight. Some of them sit better and some of them sit very badly and it frustrates me that you know I I I try to work with them. I don't have enough time to work with them but the next week they will come again with the same habits. Um yeah, it's it's hard to see. It's hard to watch. It breaks your heart, doesn't it, to watch it and and what I was aware of when I first started in the techniques, I say back started looking back in 1983 and and and after is that you didn't really you didn't often see poor posture in children under the age of 10. Now you see children in in kindergarten sitting in a slump. Um it's it just seems to have got earlier and earlier. Um, and whether that's because the potties have changed or whether there's more pressure on kids or the furniture's rad, I don't know. Um, but it seems to be going in that direction. Joe, can you unmute? Sorry. Yeah. Just wondering, uh, you know, the stalls where you put your knee on them, uh, that you sit at the desk with your knees down, is that what are they like? Well, they claim that you can't sit badly on them. I've seen people sit in a fantastic slump on a kneeling chair. Um, and I don't personally like them because the pressure is not supposed to go through the knees. Um, and it's it's a it's a rather vulnerable part of the body. The pressure is supposed to be through the feet. What you don't get is the upthrust of the legs, which is supposed to be happening even as we're sitting in a chair. But most people, of course, have collapsed their legs along with their back. Um, if it works for you at the moment, don't throw it away. But, um, you know, but as we go on, you'll probably find another way of doing it. Do you use one at the moment? Adam does. I do. I do. Yeah. And how do you find it? Well, I've sort of got you. I've molded myself to it. So, it's difficult to say. I find it comfortable. Yes. Because because I' I've adapted myself. Yeah. So as we go on through the work, I mean you you might take another you you'll find yourself observing yourself. You may carry on with it. You may leave it behind. Just there's no there's no right or wrong. It's it's what works for you on this one. So I'm I'm not going to give it a they don't work for me. But um but some people love them. So yeah, see see how you go. Anyone else want to comment on kneeling stools? Nope. Everyone's being quiet on that one. Okay. So, um, the five senses, this enormous myth, the five senses. We all learned it at school. Um, sight, sound, touch, taste, smell. And if you think about it, they're all the external senses, you know, and from time to time, I can't count the number of times I've read something and or been to a workshop, and this must be the sixth sense. Excuse me, how many sixth senses are there? I mean, there's there's there's lots of them. Um, propreception is the one we are going to be working with a lot, of course, which is the sense of where one's body is in space and what the muscles, the tendons, and so on are doing. Um, then there's interception, the one that we really got told not to listen to at school, which is the sense of when you're hungry, when you're tired, when you're thirsty, when you're sleepy, um, and so on. That that internal sensing of the body's homeostatic state. Um, and and nobody even knows those words, um, extraception, intraception, although they're they're coming a little bit more common than they were. Just a little. And it's like we never even think of those as senses, but they are. And it's interesting that we've been taught only to focus the external senses. We've been society as a whole has not labeled the internal senses as senses. And that I think as well tells us a lot. Um, and then there's the ones that still don't make it onto the scientific lists, like the intuition that it's your mom on the phone or um, my mom is very good at knowing what time it is. We used to play with it as children. We would go out for the afternoon and my mom wouldn't have a watch and we would and at some point we'd say, "What's the time, Mom?" And she'd tell us to within five minutes. Um, I don't know how she does it. I haven't got that one. And then there's your sense of direction um which um seems to go as people get older. It seems to be linked to the vestibular system and that goes as we get older. The vestibular system, the balance system is another one that doesn't get listed. Um so there's lots and lots of senses that um that that aren't listed. The official list is now up to I think 33 because all the different touch is not one sense. It's heat and cold and very much very and burning and sharp points and pressure and um I forget all all the different and tickle and itch and and they're all actually different receptors. There's an awful lot appropriate of um of touch receptors. So, anyone want to say anything on senses? Anyone got a favorite that I haven't mentioned? I really like the chapter on the um senses and especially being a coach. we see that um you know you mentioned sometimes people go oh those are those are just woo woo and it really kind of writes off such a big part of the internal experience and um it's a big process to kind of cultivate that very much later in life and you get a lot of push back from society even if you do which is so painful. M yeah absolutely yes no there's we have so many senses and you know there's a sense of when a business deal is right isn't there there's a there's all sorts of you know senses that really are senses um yeah and sense of time sense of space is one we'll be working with a lot of course um yes so and I think many illnesses can be traced to this denial of the senses and the internal senses. And again, many of you will know I had a 30-year battle with chronic fatigue because I learned so thoroughly to um suppress my sense of what I wanted, who I was when, when, you know, to be able to actually speak my truth in any context. And that's a quick way to shut somebody down. So, there's all sorts of aspects to wakening this um to wakening this up again. Agnes. Yes. I was um thinking also um and excuse me if I become a little monotomatic but I started um to train in human design and uh I don't know if you're familiar with that but anyway um it's it's a system of um in um inner knowledge. I don't know how to say that in in English. Excuse me. But uh anyway, um yeah. Um they talk about how we how to navigate in life to make decisions all the time because life is movement. Uh so we need to make constant decisions and that uh we are used to decide using our minds and that's um not ever a good idea like they say you know uh using your mind is uh outer authority. So you use it to communicate with people but to make your own decisions you have other senses that are better at making you know an informed um decision that not the mind. So it reminded me of that when I was um reading that chapter again today. So yeah, thank you. Yes. And there's a book called Decart's Eera um by Antonio what's his name? Dealio um the neuroscientist which actually is a whole exploration of the fact that to make clear rational decisions you actually need your gut brain. You have to sink down to that belly brain. And they're now calling the belly brain the second brain. It isn't. It's the first brain. Um, the first nervous systems would have been an entic a nerve net, just a web that actually control digestion and a little bit of movement. And that's, you know, there's there's our there's our entic brain. The the one that developed at the top of the spinal cord that came later. So, the entic nervous system really is the first first brain and that's not in the head, it's in the body. So if we deny the as if we deny the body, we deny our deepest level of intelligence that actually can make the truest decisions for us. And when people have that connection from the belly brain to the brain knocked out because there's one case of a woman who had a tumor in that part, another one who had a very bizarre accident that knocked out that connection. They actually can no longer make sensible life decisions even though their cognitive brain is still perfectly functioning. So um it's it's fascinating the research but most people most scientists even have probably not even heard of that the research is still focused on the head. Um we need to change our thinking if we are want to change our movement patterns. Christina, I was just wondering that uh maybe the kind of decisions that we have to make uh nowadays aren't suited for the belly brain that the kind of decisions we could make with the belly brain. uh that's not the kind of decisions uh we have to make today because some society is quite different now from when we were living um in the nature so to speak you know what I mean that yes and no I mean I think there's when one when one needs to add up one's tax return then the cognitive brain is useful but even to decide what to have for dinner I can make a cognitive decision nor I can make a a deeper down decision that tells me whether I need meat or not meat or um carrots versus broccoli or whatever. I mean sometimes it is just about choice but sometimes the body has something to tell us. I think there is always a case for these deeper decisions. Um, and you think it's still working, so to speak. That is Well, in most people it isn't working because it's been cut off from us. And you know, life becomes a lot easier when we switch it back on again. Do I want to stay friends with this person? That's not you know the head the head can give one answer which is about pleasing the person or getting higher up the ranking in in the organization or whatever and the belly is saying I do not like this person and if we don't listen to that it it can make us ill. Um it can quite disturb our systems because we're not listening to the deeper truth. Would you agree with that? So this is this is quite profound I think. Um and and most people like Hank was saying it's they just they they think it's woohoo and it's not. Um so changing our movement patterns which is what we tend to think of Alexandra as being about um needs a change in thinking. Uh we're not just going to because if you go to the average if if you look at change your posture online you'll get told to pull your head back firmly towards your spine and pull your belly in and of course all you're doing is putting in horrific tension into the body. Um do try it now. Um head up, shoulders back, chin in. Um you know pull that belly in and how's your breathing now? Can anyone breathe? No. And then you're expected to dance or play rugby or whatever. It doesn't make any sense. So, it's not the answer. If we're going to change our movement patterns, we have to go to these deeper levels. Um, and top down versus bottom up processing. You see, we've been taught in school to use top- down processing. Top down processing is taking what somebody else tells us and applying it to ourselves. Um, you should do this course, you should get um you you should take Latin, whatever. Um, and it's it's listening to other people's authority. Bottomup processing is listening to that gut brain. It's listening to the to the whole body intelligence. And it's experiential. Um, I love asking uh pupils, where are your hip joints? And over the years, I've had various doctors and you can see them working out in their brain, sort of bringing up a picture of the of the skeleton in their mind, finding the the hip joint on the skeleton, and then trying to map it onto their own body. And it's a real you can you can see there's a lot of brain work involved. And if I ask an artist or a farmer, they just sort of bend around a bit until they find it. And that's bottomup processing. And it's experiential. and it's what children do. It's it's very useful to be able to do both. Of course, I'm not advocating that we get rid of the cognitive mind. We need it particularly, as Christina says, in the society we live in. Um but um we want we want both of these in play. This the problem is we got caught on Daycart. Daycart told us, you know, several hundred years ago that the mind is the mind is the good bit. Um that this split between the mind and the body and it goes right back to the ancient Greeks. It was Aristotle who said the body is a machine. The mind is the good bit. The brain is the good bit and the body is a machine. And I think in the west we've taken that model of the body is a machine all the way through. And there's people now who freeze their brains, get their brains cryogenically frozen in the hope that sometime in the future, they'll hope to reconstruct the person from the brain. They've frozen the wrong bit. I mean, it's never going to work. The brain is just it's it's as it's as useful as as freezing your little finger. Um, it's it's not the whole of you. And that's very much what we've been told. The whole of us is, funnily enough, the whole of us, it's all intelligent. Anyone want to say anything to this? [Music] Um so the division of the left and right brains I mean the in a sense the whole book is based on this um division between top and bottom left and right and also front and back in the Gilchrist's theory. Um, has everybody read that that bit? That's um, yeah, who hasn't? Has anyone not read this bit? You haven't, Attilla. Right. And Mong. So, I'll go through it quickly because I just love describing it. Anyway, if you the the the biggest thing you see if you look at the brain is there's a great division down the middle. And why is it there? Because, um, all the animals have it. All the vertebrates have it. the fish, the frogs, the lizards, um the birds, they all have that division as well as us, as well as all the mammals. And for a long time, scientists have been looking at it saying, "What's what's it about?" And the human scientists looking at it to start with said, "Well, the left side's the logical bit, and that's the good bit. It's got language, and it's got writing, and it's got it's got that cognitive stuff. So, that's the good side. And the right side has art and intuition. that's a bit fluffy, that's not so useful, let's focus on the left side. Um, and then that didn't quite work out because a lot of things turned out to be on both sides. So, the human scientists stopped looking at it, but the animal scientists carried on. And this man called in McGillchrist um who was actually um an English dawn professor at Oxford and he suddenly thought to himself one day why am I taking these absolutely beautiful poetry and deconstructing them with my logical brain until they cease to be beautiful anymore? What am I doing here? Um so he got out and he trained retrained as a psychiatrist and he studied he took he looked at all the studies that had been done and he realized that it was about the two sides of the brain process in different ways and he gives the image of a bird under a bird table and that bird is saying um that's a merit seed peck that's a sunflower seed peck that's a stone don't bother that's um a a wheat grain that's a wheat berry I'll peck that. So it's very much based on narrow task focused living. This this way of this this left brain way that the brain is using that the bird's using here. And it's based on what it already knows. It has already learned the difference between stones and millet seeds and sunflower seeds. It's not interested in whether it's a big sunflower seed or a little sunflower seed. It just says sunflower seed and then it completes the task and starts again next task. But if all that was if the bird was only looking in that way, it would very quickly become dinner to my cat. So at the same time as doing that very narrow focused task, it needs also to be scanning the entire horizon for cats, for birds of prey, for snakes. And that is a totally opposite task because it's looking not for the known but for the unknown. And it's also looking for relationships within the flock which takes an enormously broad focus. So these two totally different tasks that have to be running side by side in the brain. And how does the brain do it? Well, very sensibly. It creates a division down the middle and does one task on one side and the other task on the other. And then it can be running two completely different programs at once. And that's exactly what happened. So the left side is for the narrow task focused stuff where you do this and then you do this and then you do this and then you do this and then you do this and then you do this and the right side keeps the overview. It keeps the experiential going. It keeps um it keeps looking for the unknown for the unexpected and seeing actually really what's there and that's the side we lose from our schooling. And then life just becomes about do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this. And we don't feel we have enough time. Anyone feel they live their lives like that? No, I'm going to admit it. Yes. I mean, it's just it is the modern catch, isn't it? We just live from task to task to task and we get stressed. And because we've lost the right brain carrying the overview, um just writing a list gives on an overview. Yes, I'll do this now and then I'll make lunch and then I'll do that and then the left brain can relax because it knows it's got an hour for this and an hour for that after lunch and it's got a plan and that's the right brain coming in. So the right brain needs to lead the show in the in our western world. the left brain leads the show and that's where things get destructive because the left brain likes to put the right brain down and say, "Oh, that's just a bit arty farty. That's woohoo." Um, and that just leads us down a very nihilistic path. Whereas when the right brain is in charge, the left brain is like a like a child that feels safe. It can it can it can play knowing that moms can or dad can sort out when lunch happens and when I go to school and when I come home and all that is taken care of by mom and then I can focus on my task. So Ian McGill Chris's book has the rather strange title, the master and the emissery. And his it's it's like the the master is the right brain. And it's what it's supposed to be able to do is send the emissery, the servant out to complete a task and then come back and report back to the master. And that's how we're actually supposed to be. Um, from our point of view, the right brain is very interesting because that's the side where we experience the body. The left side, as I told you about the doctors, simply has a schematic map of the body, but it doesn't actually experience it. It's on the right side of the brain that we experience the body. So, if we're going to do Alexander work where we want to be actually knowing where our hips are, it makes sense if we get the right side of the body going. And this is where spatial awareness comes in because spatial awareness is entirely lateralized to the right side of the brain. The right side of the brain is the only one that has real metrics. It sees in three dimensions. It actually experiences time. It experiences space and time. So um and it also experiences the space within our own bodies. So as you're sitting here, you know that your bums are considerably a long way below your noses. That's your That's your right brain telling you that. Um I once worked with a computer programmer. I knew on lesson one he was a computer programmer and I told him that. I said, "You're a computer programmer, aren't you?" He said, "How do you know?" Um and the answer was because he was a walking head. He had no idea where his body was. Um in fact, he arrived to his lesson every week with dog on his shoes. And I took to making him take his shoes off by the front door because it was so disgusting. and he just he just did not know where his body was. Um he was like a he was like a bean grown in a cupboard. Uh that's a purely leftrain person. So we need that right brain back on track in order to be able to know where the body is and know what it's doing. That's the side that's going to be aware of your propreception. It's also, you know, Alexander told us that we can't do the work for ourselves because of faulty sensory perception, which is our judgment because that we base if I try and take you out of the chair in a new way, your brain says, "Oh, that's wrong." And and and just does the old movement all over again. That's the left brain. It has to be because it's based on a past experience and it goes to the known as the solution. And if we are to change how we're doing things, we have to step into the right brain which simply comes into spatial awareness and is interested in the unknown. It's interested in experience. And because in this group through the book, we're going to be doing what normally you would have to go for a teacher for. We're going to be doing it for ourselves. That is why we need our right brains alive and kicking and leading the show. And so a lot of the work we're going to be doing is teaching us to come back into the right brain. Does anyone want to say anything to all that? There's various hands flicking around. Um Joe, is that Oh, Ailla. Oh, yeah. I hope it it it will make any I hope it makes sense what I'm about to say but um first what I noticed uh I noticed the excitement so I I like going deep into this subject but uh I already think I'm behind because I scheduled two hours for reading the first two chapter and I read like six pages so what would you suggest because I'm so into the subject I did you know Google search couple of things immediately but I don't want to feel or left behind like that is one of my trigger patterns anyway so I would like to be really careful about that so I would like to use this process to get in touch with my intraception that the other topic that you talked about yes so when before I went to university my dad actually bought me a book called how to learn and it was one of the first books on the market that gave study methods and it actually revolutionized my experience at college and I don't think I would have done as well without it. Um and one of the things it said is that when you come to read a textbook um first look at the the contents and just get a sort of map of the book and then when you when you come to read a chapter read the whole chapter relatively quickly and then go back and read it more slowly even if and and because my pattern certainly I would read a sentence or a paragraph get stuck and then read it over and over again or feel I needed to go to a textbook or and it's better to get the overview. It's back to right brain, left brain, isn't it? So, get the overview and then maybe read it a second time. Getting the overview, getting the sense of it, and then from there, make some clear choices. Um, something that Mrs. Miss Gildy was incredibly keen on, make some clear choices which bit you then follow up on because there may not be time to follow up on all of them. And you know, Hermione for those who read their Harry Potter um somehow could read and absorb every textbook. But personally, I had to be more selective and I learned to get through the workload, I had somehow not to go down the ones that even though I loved to, you know, Google things that it was better to stick to the subject and and just follow up maybe on more more central things. So that would be my suggestion. How does that land? Yeah, thank you. that uh that's a good feedback because I'm already doing this like I I went through this book like two or three times in general just go through the pages. Yes. Uh yeah, thank you. It's just nice feedback. Thanks. Yes. Good. Thank you. Um, Agnes. Yes. Just thinking that um maybe as teachers we use verbal directions and that would be the the left side of the brain. No, we want the left and the right side working together. Um and actually we'll be we'll be exploring both Goldie's discovery method which is primarily a rightbrain experiential um discovery process but also constructive conscious control which is a leftbrain approach and Alexander actually used both. Um, one of the sentences, Phil, Philip Shepherd, those of you who've read the read the chapter may have noticed the name Philip Shepherd. Um, he's an embodiment man. Radical wholeness is his method. And I worked with him for eight years. Um, and one day he said, you know, the primary wound in our culture is between thinking and being. We think of thinking and being as two separate things. We need to learn to bring them back together. And again, I think when we give directions and verbal instructions from an embodied place, we can do that. We we want to learn how to be embodied as we speak, as we think, as we direct. And this is again one of the things we'll be learning. Um we we need to link these back up again. Can we can we think and speak? And you know, so many people when they think and ask a question, they're off. I've lost my link with you now. Can I think and speak and look forward at the same time? It's amazing how many people can't do that. So, um these are all ways in which we need to link back up again. Does how does that sound, Agnes? Yeah. Thank you. Um me mour um I do have a question about um it might be not only right or left side brain but when you say is a right side is open to the unknown. So when we teach or even some students or even myself um a little of fear reaction for the unknown then actually then it will screw up even logical in the both side um where it fall into or it is a different part of a brain how it is that kind of unknown territory. Well, unknown can be as simple as if I pick up something simple like my cup. Um, I can see my cup and my left brain goes, "That's a cup." And it doesn't need to look any further. But my right brain sees the cup and goes, "Oh, there's reds on there and yellows and blues and and the reds. Actually, there's there's more than one red. There's a richness of red coming at me. And and I'm I'm getting the sense of the of the of the volume of the flower that is being portrayed here. This is an experience of the unknown. I'm allowing a primary experience to I'm allowing myself to perceive a primary experience rather than just going oh yeah cup. Does that make sense? So I think unknown can be very simple. Yeah. Um I think I guess I was asking about kind of emotional reaction to the unknown when their habitual pattern is so right for the students and then when they experience kind of a new or unknown some student get a little bit more vulnerable. Sure. Yeah. So yes I think it's it's something one just needs to be careful with. Um yeah, when when I was living in Ireland, um the Irish people, hello Peter. They could be once once you once you went part once you sort of went through a barrier and they would completely open up in a way that Londoners didn't. Um I loved working with them, but one had to be very careful in those early lessons not to open up too fast. Um is that fair, Peter? That's a It's a very amusing description, Penelopey. I enjoyed it, but I think it's fair. Yeah. Yeah. I can't speak for Londoners, but for Irish people. Yes. Yes. Yes. And what I would do was gentle my voice as if I was talking to a newborn. just gentle my voice right up to give them and and gentle my eyes and just give them as many cues of safety as I could and that would often nurse them through and lots of reassurance that this is safe um that it can feel strange but actually it's safe. I mean some people of course just have such a reaction on the first lesson and you never see them again but that's unfortunately it doesn't happen too much but if if people if people open up too much too fast they they can run away um so it's it's it's somehow tuning in and seeing if you can take it gently. Does that answer your question? Um yeah so I I I was just thinking about right side brain and left brain. I mean um it is just kind of different part of brain in that kind of emotional I think it probably is actually isn't it that there's it probably triggers the amydala it's probably triggering the lyic system that there's you know change happening too fast um you know it's and it's a lot of people you know I I'd hear friends when my daughter was little there was this woman at nursery once she said we've got to get to bed early tonight because actually we're going to get the kids up at 5:00 in the morning and we're talking three-year-olds here. We're going to get the kids up at 5:00 in the morning and we're all going to go and get on a plane and we're going to fly to America and we're going to go to Disneyland and they don't know. Say, I wouldn't do that to my daughter. She would be traumatized. She'd never enjoy any of it. She would need very careful preparation of what was going to happen. And she's still like that. She hates surprises, you know, and I I don't want anyone throwing me a surprise party either. Um it's it would be too overwhelming. So I think aspect Yeah. So when you teach that we um sorry I just take too long. I just it'll be last but it's an interesting question. So when we approach kind of open up the student the kind of co um fa um body experiential spatial awareness open up more of the right brain. But at the same time we have to be um a little bit gentle slower and know when to stop or go further not activate the their other fear. Yes. The center of the brain so that it gets okay. So it is not necessarily that kind of right brain and left brain is not related to anything emotional flight fight response. tastes more like a central of diagonal that area that I would I would think so I would think so I mean I what is the area that the right brain itself is not going to get overwhelmed I mean I think it's the but although it is the the the amydala that gets overwhelmed is the amydala on the right side of the brain apparently so it is all on the right side of the brain um what the left amigdula is doing I don't know but I do know that the one that triggers a fear response is the right amydala So it's I mean that side of the the different aspects of that side of the brain will be talking to each other and I guess as long as they're talking in harmony you're okay if one bit gets away and gets a bit alarmed. So there's probably much more going on in there. I don't know. Um it's a very interesting question and of course anyone who's sensitive just hits their overload quicker. Um anyone here know that one? I mean, I think a lot of the Alexander community are sensitive, so we know that. It's partly why we are Alexander teachers. Um, yeah, thank you. Um, Joe or Adam? Yes. Well, it's me speaking, but perhaps a bit on Adam's behalf, but so you've been told, but that other people So, Adam had um a brain tumor removed six years ago. Yeah. Uh, fortunately, only a very low grade, so it it got all removed, but he has damage to the left. it was in the left ventricle. So he has a few brain scars on the left side. So we were told that the the left side of the brain um commanded what the right side of the body does and the other way around. Is that cuz you haven't mentioned that and so had problems with the right. So at the beginning it's completely better now but the beginning sort of you didn't have much sensation on the right side. You know, even if you pinched him on the right side, he wouldn't feel it. He would on the left. And well, as I've explained, he he's got problems sort of walking now. I mean, lots of Yeah. sort of things that knock on effects, but Yeah. But I can run. Well, go on, Adam. I can run. You can run. I love But not walk. Well, I have problems walking. That That's a mystery I've never been managed to clear up. Never understood. bit. Yes. And and we can explore that as we go further along. I think the the right side controlling the left and the left side controlling the right. Um the hemisphere thing is is different to that in my understanding. I'm not a neurologist so I can't um but the apparently um I think it's chickens. You can creep up on them more easily on the left side than on the right side because the left side is more focused and doesn't see you coming and the right side has the unknown. um or so the frogs may be the same. I can't remember which species it is, but it's rather a fun fact. We have the cerebellum with lots of crossovers. Um unless of course we're dyslexic and that gets a little bit messed up as well. So, um I think there's all sorts of mechanisms and some of which one side controls the other side and the other like the vision, you know, the left eye and the right eye and then there's a crossover so that we it all it all gets more mixed up. So I don't understand all these different way ways when they cross over and when they don't. And what we're concerned with is is is these two processing methods of the hemispheres. But I'm I'll be very interested to see how because I think I think what Adam's lot I think that's the the proper reception is and the and the spatial awareness is what he finds difficult would you say what you find difficult with. So it could be that his right side is taking over some of the functions that the left side had trying. Maybe the right side's got too much going on in it now because there's less on the left. Who knows? Let's explore as we go on and see what happens. Um and it will be very interesting to see to see to see how that see what we discover. Um yeah, thank you for sharing that. Thank you, Adam, for your for your openness on this one. It's lovely. Um Hank, I'll keep it brief. Um something that I've noticed, especially looking at uh things like positive intelligence, like mindfulness, like K&I, um there's practices that they bring you back to your pup reception. And so I found it incredibly useful to vision it as just activate your right brain of your mind rather than doing this practice and that practice and this practice. and and so I I really appreciated that piece of text within the book defining it. Yeah, it's it's it it encompasses so much actually when you look at it, doesn't it? Thank you, Aziz. Aziza. Yes. Just very briefly to go back to uh what um Mjung was talking about. It occurred to me because this is something that that interests me as well uh both as a mindfulness teacher and as a um an Alexander teacher. I work with people with Parkinson's um almost exclusively. And I think that this this whole business of of being able to to bring people into this into into a situation which is unknown. Um and it just this made me think this made me think and I thought one of the ways of doing that is to uh ground it in what's known. ground it in what's known and then slowly so there's a sense of of of of of known and safety and then from that once you sort of establish that then being able to to to um use the curiosity to go a bit further but that's yes and that's one of the things I always do is get people actually seeing the room because I mean the simplest way of of encompassing the known is what am I actually seeing in front of me? Because if someone's in a fear, they actually stop seeing what's in front of them because fear is always in the past or the future. And so actually to get them just to see what's in front of them just can bring them back I find. And you know also sensing feet on the floor and things but but just seeing is one I use a lot or hearing or smelling um the primary senses I find very helpful for that. So this is why you know in order to in order to find integrative movement there's a lot of talk now about integrative movement and if you look up most things on integrative movement you'll find they are only talking about the body. They're not talking about any of this stuff. Um and you cannot have truly integrative movement unless you encompass the entire nervous system, the entire sensory system, um the entire cognitive system. think of um so the how is movement really organized and I like to talk about the way a cat um goes after a mouse because again you see we have this idea that um you know the old the old idea was oh the cat the cat the cat hunts the mouse through instinct. Well what does that mean? And the idea was that the cat ran a pre-formed program of first you crouch and then you and then you stalk and then you jump. Well, it's it doesn't work. The whole thing is actually in dynamic relationship with the mouse. That cat smells the mouse. It sees the mouse. It hears the mouse. You know, you've only got to watch an animal catch a smell or catch a sound and their whole behavior changes and they drop into that crouch. And then they're listening, they're sensing, and then they start the stalk. It c it the the behavior is called out of them by what they're sensing. And along the way, they're having to be completely aware of whether there are rocks to step over, clumps of grass to work around, whether there's actually a car coming into the drive and it's time to give up chasing that mouse and just flee anyway because it's dangerous. You know, they're keeping the everything focused externally as well as focusing forwards towards the mouse. And they're watching that mouse all the time. Very often they will wait until the mouse begins to jump, begins to run until they jump. So everything is completely determined by what they're sensing about the mouse. It's it's their and along the way they are feeding in their vestibular system, their propriceptive system, their intraceptive system which is telling them that they're hungry or that they want to play because you know their desire to hunt the mouse may just be out of a desire to hone play skills and hunting skills rather than out of a desire to eat. But there's an intraception driving that. And then at the end the the movement comes out of a of the whole thing. So I did this map um which came into a beautiful crystal format. I was very pleased when it came into that and can I actually in this moment I meant to bring it up before we started and then I forgot which was not very clever. So excuse me one moment where I just find the image which is right here. There we go. So, let's bring that up. And now, let's come back and share it. [Music] Um, share. There we go. Can you see that? We're not Are we not there yet? Yes, you can. You can see that. So, um yeah. So, what we've got that's is um the physical fundamentals. This is the one, as I say, that is the only one considered by most um people talking about integrative movement. And you've got kinetic chains and muscle groups that self-organize with gravity and other forces. So, you've got the all the all the extensor muscles, the flexor muscles, the core muscles, and so on. They all work in groups and chains together, and they they they actually self-organize with gravity against against against external forces. But um wrapping all around that and within it you've got the the balance the fascial continuity all the fascia that weaves in and around everything. And that gives a tenseity our baseline organization which is self-contained. And then you've also got the fact that everything is in spirals. Without being in spirals we couldn't move. And when you put all three together you get a functional body that morphs into movement. You get a body that will bend and stretch and twist and jump and and leap and and sleep and whatever. But if there are no senses, there is no reason to move. I mean, there are poor poor kids in special, you know, schools who have no sight, no hearing, no no external senses and they don't move. They just lie there. There is no reason to move. Why do we move? We move because we see an apple. We see a friend. We run away from a a bully. The we we move because of what we see. So we've got the the extraception which is these external senses. We also move because of our intraception. We're hungry, tired, thirsty, frightened, whatever. And our propreception is a key part of both of it because we need that internal sense of where the body is in order to move. put all those together and you get a sort of global spatial awareness of self. Um, and I'm including sort of everything in our spatial awareness there, internal and external. And then you've also got the fact that you need a calm nervous system, the consciousness fundamentals. Um, the calm nervous system. If that cat is really frightened, it's not going to be hunting the mouse. It's going to run away. And if we're so many of us, you know, a pupil walks in and actually they are in a deeply deeply agitated state, you have to calm them down before you can do anything. And so that's also essential to integrated movement. Um embodiment and embodied intelligence, what we were talking about earlier, needing to be aware of that belly brain. And indeed, there's more than the belly. Every cell in the body is intelligent as we'll discover. And then this one that I discovered from Miss Goldie. Although Daycart is wrong about the split between the mind and the body, yet there is a separation. We need to separate the thinking from the doing even as we're integrating them together. It's a paradox, but it's there as we'll discover. And when you put all those together, then you can make an embodied conscious choice to give a focus of intent. That cat in in that moment is choosing to hunt the mouse. You are choosing all to sit here and pay attention to the screen. And we're learning to make more conscious embodied choices with that focus of intent. When we put all these three together, you've got a functional body, you've got the spatial awareness, you've got the embodied ch conscious choice, and then you get an integrated movement in relation to life, which is as beautiful as a cat jumping on a mouse and catching it um straight off as it were. So, it's coordinated, it's poised, it's beautiful, it's balanced, it's efficient, and that's what we're after. And it's all-encompassing. And the realm of the right hemisphere is all the way round, open-minded, exploratory, home of the felt experience. That all happens within the overview of the right hemisphere. Who would like to say something to all that? or are you completely overwhelmed? I was so pleased when it turned into that beautiful crystal. So, does anyone want to speak to that? Is there anything else to say? I'm quite happy to add something to that. Please. Um, at the moment we are doing something called 10,000 hours of play. It's a process of how do you um go about to gamify your life, bring in a lot of playfulness. And I'm quite excited that all of these elements fit together because what it does, it it essentially gives you a little bit of a map that you can go and break down and say, I need to work a little bit on this aspect or I need to work a little bit on that aspect to to fill up that middle triangle. And so I think it's a very nice diagnostic tool for you to get closer to your right brain propriception. Nice. Nice. Absolutely. Yes. Quite. And play is very much a right brain phenomenon, isn't it? The idea of working hard is a leftbrain concept. Yes. Based on all sorts of erroneous beliefs. Um so Alexander didn't define all these 12. He he defined some of them. He certainly defined the need for a balanced physical structure, lengthening and widening with free joints. Um nobody was talking about fascia in those days. He did have a sense that muscle groups that muscles worked in groups. They worked in they didn't work individually. He knew that. Um but there was a limit to what he could know 100 years ago. Plus self-observation. Of course he he absolutely understood that the need for to refine your sensory awareness. Calming reactivity. do not stimulate the fear reflexes. Um that that was absolutely known again ahead of his time. Um you know the the sympathetic nervous system was only I think named in 1920s and they were talking he was he was sensing that I think before that clear thinking with inhibition um from which a new reason choice can be made. So to make Miss Goldie talked all the time about making a clear choice that you needed to make clear decisions. So a clear focused decision a clear intent was very much you know stop and then give consent you know what you're giving consent to. That was very much in Alexander's model. Thinking directions the lines along which the body expands and moves. Now I suggest that um these actually go along with the the fascial lines, the myofascial lines. Um directions aren't in the aren't actually on that map because there's something a human can do. I think although we do now talk about I do talk a lot about flowing energy along through the body to energize what's happening. And so there's different ways of giving directions. We'll talk more about directions. They're more complex. I think they don't quite sort of fit neatly into the schema in the way the other things do. And the goal of movement, the the goal that is to be carried out with means whereby um rather than end gaining with no thought or awareness. I mean those were those were Alexander's fundamentals. He didn't define where we think from. Um although there is I think he got the Miss Goldie's concept that you need he did define that we need to separate the thinking from the doing. And that again is I think where Miss Gold's concept of mind in the brain came from. He was very clear that you can't you don't muddle thinking and doing. You have to have a separation between them. Um they didn't define embodiment although Goldie again they knew about embodiment. He would talk about having conscious knees, intelligent knees and um Goldie apparently would talk about um getting your brain work happening throughout your body. So they they didn't they didn't have the name embodiment but the but the and it wasn't very clearly expressed but it was there but it wasn't so explicit in it's not in the books particularly that but it was there in his teaching um he didn't define to be in relationship with the task that he did not define um he defined his system as a self-contained unit and I think it was Irene Tasker working in the small school with the children and he then taught Marri Balo um Goldie and Erica Whitaker and also Marie Basto um to think in relationship. So but on the other hand he made his discovery processes in relation but he never defined that in the way some of the women teachers later did and Frank Pierce Jones I think did um that needs to be much more clearly brought out. Um introsception wasn't defined by any of them. I think they would have included it in self-awareness and inhibition I think has been greatly misunderstood as a stopgo process rather than an ongoing state of quiet awareness. The difference between inhibition in the left brain and the right brain is quite different as we'll find out. So um we are both working with Alexander's discoveries, his writings, his discoveries. We're coming back to what he was trying to articulate but didn't manage. And we're also taking some things forward based on on new new work, new neuroscience, new anatomy. So, that's an overview of what we're going to be doing. And um how does that sound? Good. So, um we've run over time. I'm a hopeless timekeeper. Um, so anyone who can't stay till the end always can catch up on the recording. So next time let's start on chapter three. And if you would like to read um chapter 3 up to page [Music] um up to exploration 3.7 um up to page 43 and then the second half of chapter 3 we'll do next time. um as somebody wrote it, I rather frontload the book with uh information. So there's quite a lot of theory of tenseity and biomechanics and so on and we'll talk through it. Um but have some experiences. Now, the one I really, really want everybody to start with, and it is a really painful one to do for most of us, is video yourself get side on getting in and out of a chair and observe what you're actually doing. And I'm afraid there's it's always quite a humbling process to see what you're actually doing. Let's see where we start from. We think that after being through our training, we're getting in and out of chairs beautifully. Take an honest look either by yourselves or with your partners. It's a nice one to do together as well. You can also do it by watching each other. But it's very good if you can watch a video yourself and go, "Oh my god, there's my neck going back. I thought I'd sorted that." Um, and you may look and say, "Well, God, that sust." Um, so see, so do start with that one. Do not skip that one, please. Um, and and it's also such a useful starting point with pupils. I always do this first with pupils. Um, not to embarrass them, but just to be a scientist observing and helping them observe. Oh, yeah. There's my neck pulling back. I mean, my daughter said to me the other day, "Mom, whenever you talk, you're you you tighten your forehead." And I went, "What? Do I?" And of course, she only the minute she said it, I was aware of it. And I've been aware I've forgotten it today, but I spent three days being really aware of it. If she hadn't said it, I wouldn't have. You know, when somebody points something out, it's a blessing. When you spot something for yourself, it's a blessing. So, please don't let your critical voice leap in and say, "Oh my god, I'm a failure." Um, just take these things as gifts and blessings that you know where you are and you know what to work from. If we don't know where we start from, the map will not work. You cannot get from London to Edinburgh by starting in Devon because it's prettier. You have to start in London. You have to know you're starting in London. If you pretend you're starting somewhere else, the map won't work. Any questions, Susan? Okay, thanks. Um, so how do you supposo how do you propose that the partners work together? Are we working reading and practicing the literature before we hear you lecture on it or are we going back? Yes. Yes. Yes. So, so you're working in advance. You're um you're reading ahead of So, I suggest that you read by yourself first and have a play by yourself to start getting a sense of what it's about and make your own experiments. Um, some of the later explorations are really quite long and it's much easier to do them if somebody else is reading them out to you. So, um, you know, sometimes it's easier to actually do them first time with a partner. But most of them you can do by yourself. And it's good to have a go by yourself and then when you get together with your partner, you're then you can then choose, do we want to um read it and do it together? Do I want to play pupil and teacher? Um, who wants to play pupil today? who wants to play teacher. It's good to play it both ways round. I mean, in an ideal world, you do both all exercises both ways round, but there probably isn't time for that. So, you know, work it as it feels right. Um, which gives you enough experiences of giving it a go. Um, and anyone who has, you know, discovers the lady next door would love to have some Alexander but can't afford it, get them in as a practice pupil and try it out on them. You know, if you can find some practice pupils, do that, too. Um, it's because the more you practice it, the better. Um, you know, do it on your mother-in-law, whatever. Um, and how does that sound? Does that answer the question? Does answer the question. And thank you. Because otherwise, I think it would be really hard to be reviewing the old material and reading forward. Yeah. Yeah. No, we do work forward. And that's why Leslie's going around again. And so, some people go around again. It's always good to go back and review. And that's why I say if somebody has a question that's way back from six chapters earlier, I say ask it because it's always nice to to go backwards as well as forwards. But all the time we'll be building on what we've done last week. So in a sense, we'll always be re be revisiting what we've done before. So that to some extent takes care of itself. Um Christine, thank you. For our u contacting our our practice partners, where do we find contact information? Once we finish this call, I will write little emails putting you all in touch. So will one of us will. Yeah. Thank you. And Leslie, did you want to ask? That was my question. I couldn't remember how how it happened last two years ago, wasn't it? I think it was. Yes. Yes. Yes. I'll put you all in touch when when we finish today. So good. So I will send you all an email shortly and the email will contain the link to today's recording because again some people like to review the recording as well and that's also the way of reviewing the previous chapter. Um and it and it's up to you how much work you do or not. Um but obviously you know it it helps. Um so the the the email will contain the link and it will contain the date of the next session. Not that you need it cuz it's every two weeks. The only two weeks, there's two sessions in the year that we don't do. One is the first week in August. The first two weeks in August I always take off and Christmas New Year we always take off. Otherwise, we meet twice a month and that means you're paying 12 months of the year and we do 24 sessions. So, um that's that actually works out. Um, so you know, we we really are if somebody cancels a session, if if somebody presses cancel on their Google link, sometimes it sends a cancel message to everybody else. If you suddenly get a message saying today's session is canled, please ignore it. They are hell, these links when they when the these when they happen. And for some reason, they happen sometimes. I don't know why. Um, if for any reason I do cancel because I'm laid out with an with a cold and can't actually speak, you will get an email. So, if you get a Google link saying the session is canceled or changed, ignore it. Yeah. Um, so I think that's probably it. And Brenda will always send you a reminder email two days before just to remind you that the session is coming up. Susan, one other question. Um, so you're saying the first week in August you're not teaching? Yes. So what I don't have it all laid out in front of me, but do we um how does that schedule shift exactly? It's it's always every two weeks, every other week. Oh, it's always every two weeks. And in August and in Christmas, we simply go four weeks. Okay. Got it. Got it. Got it. Yeah. We never go three weeks because there's another two groups in the in the alternate week. So um Yeah. Perfect. Okay. Committed 48 Mondays of the year, which is just fine. I love it. And uh yeah, good. Thank you. Um yeah, any other questions before we finish? This has been lovely today. I'm just I This is going to be such a great group. Thank you all for coming and see you all hopefully in two weeks time. See you then. Bye now. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hello. Hello. Thank you. Dalia, is that Dalia? Who's Who's Dalia? I just Is that Nama? Is that your Daria?