My Arm Dislocates My Life

Marjorie Barstow (1899~1995) debuted in Europe at the 1988 Alexander Congress in Brighton in the UK.

This trip to London was not long after my father died – which regular readers of the Posture Daily know threw me into an existential crisis vis-à-vis my Alexander work. I lost all urgency and direction, which was a strange form for grieving to appear.

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This experience led me to question how Alexander's Discovery impacted our emotional life. On an obvious level, the systemic improvement in recruiting appropriate tension for daily living led people into feeling happier, calmer and able to handle more stress.

There is no great mystery about this.

If your tension level is – let's say – at a level of 8 out of 10, then you're easily irritated by the smallest thing. Alexander work shows you how to bring that number down – significantly if you stick at it long enough. People regularly declare that Alexander work makes them feel happier, which is nonsense. It can't do that.

But it can reveal a naturally happy person tucked away under all that unnecessary tension.

Peeling away those layers is the work of a zillion different methodologies and techniques. Alexander's work stands out because it is based on the science of movement. It is based on a discovery which – now more than a century since FM first articulated it – still lingers about in obscurity; still stands at the edge of serious scientific exploration.

And be aware!

Sadly, some teachers trade on the power Alexander's Discovery gives them to transform lives – they mistakenly believe they have empowered a person to change. They don't deserve so much credit – the credit belongs to Nature.

The skill belongs to the teacher, but the result is an evolutionary fact.

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Anyway, I wondered these things as I travelled to Sweden – before meeting up with Marj in London - to visit my beloved, crazy artist friends in Sweden. Swedes are a crazy nation of party-going people, strangely like the gregarious Australians. I felt very at home there.

Their latest project was using a Government grant to fund a Shakespearean project. They would ask local farmers to gather their cows – for a fee – into an enclosure. Then Boggy & Reeny would sit on the fench reading Shakespeare while the cows patiently stood there listening. The farmers watched it all incredulously. Crazy, but such fun people. I love my artists.

Boggy also took me rock climbing which I hate, but Reeny convinced me – then halfway up the rock face, I slipped and dislocated my arm. 

Ouch!

But it was worse than that. 

By the time I got to London, my arm was so bad I could hardly lift a teacup. Was this the grief of my father's death manifesting itself?

But it was even much, much worse than that!

I was an assistant to Marj on a revolutionary workshop for 60+ sceptical Alexander teaching-style teachers at the Rudolf Steiner Centre in London - and I could hardly raise my left arm!

How was I going to teach!?

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When you join a program studying Alexander's Discovery at BodyChance, you will gradually notice your overall level of background stress diminishing. It is subtle, slow and significant. To learn more about the Programme and book, click on the link below:

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All these stories and reflections are contained in an in-depth program that I have called ThinkingBody. Part I covers Alexander's story, and Part II is my related story, both demonstrating how a tale of transformation connects to the Compass's (Enneagram) teaching model. To learn more about the Programme and gain access, click on the link below:

https://bodychance.mykajabi.com/store/TGFBWut4

Make sure you enter the coupon code – JEREMYSURPRISE – to get a generous discount!