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New year resolution to change your life?

Come to my next set of workshops. Wednesday evenings for 4 weeks from January 13th 8 – 9pm at the Bunhill Meeting House near Old Street London EC1, £60 for the whole course. Only 4 places available.

a group of balnced resting states

email me on alexpen@onetel.com to book your place.

Every Christmas hols, I set the assignment for all my theatre students: lie down in semi-supine in the balanced resting state everyday during the hols and write a short report on this. 

Ido it myself. The first lesson back we share our experience by reading aloud our reports and in a 12-step manner, without judgement or comment.

Because I am in Alonnisos, a Greek Island, I often lie down outside, even if the weather isn’t warm, as I take my dog for a walk. Today it started off with a blue sky and  thin clouds as I battled with my habitual mind wandering. I tend to see a lot of  the sky and flying things – today a crow, a seagull, a fly or two - and always those strange wriggly minute blips in my vision, like minute tadpoles, flicks of light that have gone before I can follow the trail, and the water patterns from the eye itself, such stuff as one might see under a microscope. and I wonder at how I am looking up into the forever of sky and stars and the universe, well supported by the earth itself. An awareness of being stuck to the surface of the planet as it spins through space.

There is some inhibition involved if it starts to gently patter with rain which it has a couple of times recently!  The sounds are much greater: the vision of the wide sky accompanied by the buzz of an insect, my dog licking his paw, the hydrofoil coming in to the port, an aeroplane, the wind in the trees. Today the blue sky turned silver, a beautiful Turneresque skyscape of swirls of light and encroaching dark clouds. And I remembered Paul’s words ‘Now we see through a glass, darkly’ and thought how when my mind churns or is in the forefront, it is like a veil that means I don’t see the moment laid bare for what it is, but always from the habitual perspective of my mind, the structure of my personal experience and thought patterns. Sometimes, maybe I experience ‘Penny’ disappearing and get to a deeper experience of ‘now’, through the veil of my thinking. Perhaps when I lie down and look up at the sky I have glimpses, ‘face to face’.

Wonderfully Victoria Beckham has ‘come out’  as a user of Alexander Technique to help her posture possibly ruined by wearing so many high heels. Brilliant! It’s international. This is probably more publicity than last year when the BMJ article gave the thumbs up to Alexander Technique on extraordinary results for back pain.   You can read all about it on Twitter and the rest of the net, although a lot of the articles are inaccurate as to what AT actually is.

But girls, have no fear – it is still possible to wear heels, if you really want to.  After all,  Alexander is about conscious choice.  It just may be that you choose to wear them less often,  as you develop your  awareness and become more sensitive to the discomfort.

I teach actors who often wear heels for their roles – so come and have a sesh with me and I’ll show you how to use yourself well in heels and not be doomed to open-toed sandals all year!

Don’t you think Advent Calendars are a brilliant way of  not end-gaining? You just have to be in the means whereby and NOT endgain by opening the windows before the date written, otherwise it spoils all the fun. Not so easy when I was younger – I was dying to get to 24 and see the baby jesus in the manger….and took a sneaky peek on more than one occasion and hoped my Mum wouldn’t notice.

 I recommend the Medici Father Christmas one I bought this year – the pictures are kind of cute.

Happy Christmas everyone!

and here are the handouts

Just had a great weekend in Thessaloniki 5/6th December…….Thank you Irini and Angelikki for your hospitality at Studio BodySoul this last weekend and your lovely yoga and pilates students who wanted to find something out about Alexander Technique -

I always thought a moment of consciousness could be defined as something less than a 23rd of a second. Some scientists somewhere (probably US) have actually measured this in some way or other. But when I was discussing this with one of my students Peter, the Arvon Poetry winner last year, he quoted another poet (sorry forgotten the  name -Michael Somebody) who had likened a moment of consciousness to an iambic pentameter……I like that definition much better.  I came out with another nice thought that living in that moment we are free- free from concerns of future or  past. Freedom exists in the present moment. It is our sanctuary.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? …..a moment of consciousness……..

a moment of consciousness

Here we all are – the first meeting of Alexander teachers in Athens at Myrto’s new teaching space.  I called in on my way back from Alonnisos in October. We had a great time talking and sharing work and plan to do this again in January.  If you want work with any of them, here are their numbers:

Myrto: 6976603160
Nikos: 6938094697
Vicky:6977944849

Athens teachers

I’m leaving fro UK today after the wettest week I have ever experienced in Alonnisos this early in September.  Despite rain and grey skies the last workshop continued in good spirits and even managed some swimming!  Thanks to Marloes and Yvonne for great learning and discovery….

looking at goats whilst lengthening

lengthening in cat

The AT world has a forum on the internet and this was quoted in some discussion on neuroscience:

All changes even the most longed for have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another          Anatole France

I found this to be true during my training especially. I love the word melancholy. My student from Brazil used it the same day I read this quote. Has a wonderful nuance to it. So different from ‘depression’ or ‘sadness’. I used to mourn some of my old habits as I let them go. It was good to honour their use to me in the past. ‘Oh you mean I don’t have to try anymore?? After all those years of trying so hard to be right/good/perfect….etc etc’  Relief and melancholy….melancholy and then relief and joy and wahoo!!!

Some come to the Work wanting relief from back pain, not realising the profound nature of Alexander Technique.  and believe it is possible to change their postural set with no emotional or life-changing consequences.  Changing their job, deciding to move house, to get married or divorced  has nothing to do with the fact that they are having lessons in change, does it? Of course not, these things may have happened anyway………..

Can you believe it? Three double bass players who are also Alexander Technique teachers all visit Alonnisos at the same time – and it wasn’t a bass players convention, I promise. Judith Kleinman and Peter Buckoke both play and teach in London and were over here to attend/assist on my teachers workshop.  And Nikos Mastrokostopoulos who teaches and plays in Athens  came over for a private course of lessons with me….what are the statistical odds about AT and double bass and small Greek Islands?

Judith, Peter and Nikos