Today I had the great good pleasure to share work with three local teachers.
I phoned around many teachers this time last year to connect, say Hello, share where I’m at with my business and hear how they are doing. I was happy to reconnect with some, and introduce myself to others. It felt like a lovely community building opportunity too. Some have stayed in touch, and each month, those who can and want to meet and share work.
I had such a wonderful experience on my Alexander Technique Teacher Training course in Kendal in 2000-2003. There were over 20 students at one point, 2 Heads of Training, several teachers who held regular classes each week and a steady stream of visiting teachers and recently graduated ones too. I loved the buzz, the variety and the sense of community. I belonged. These are my people.
The learning was rich too. Sometime a bit confusing for me in its many variations, but a very enriching experience to see the many ways that Alexander’s principles were put into practice.
Today’s experience was like a mini retreat. 2 hours with 3 other local teachers, 2 who trained in Manchester and one from the Ribeaux’s school and me from Fellside. We worked in pairs at the chair and table.
I find it a humbling, joyful and a delicious experience to be worked on by other Teachers. Humbling as I am shown my personal blind-spots. I’ve had a stiffness around my ribs recently, and despite my best attempts not to try too hard, the discomfort has had me seeking relief from pain and I realised I’d been trying too hard. Very gently one of the teachers put her hands on my ribs and moved me very subtly. I could clearly feel myself stiffening and how I was trying to protect this part of me.
Its this protecting layer of the pattern which can mask a layer beneath where the real cause lies. Its hard to put into words what that was, but something along the lines of a separation between the spine at the lowest ribs and the spine below. Almost as if my mind had an idea of a hinge here. Obviously there are no hinges along the spine, so this unconscious belief in my head was incorrect. Incorrect yet still running the show!
I was encouragement to wait, think about the full length of my spine, let my back work all together as one long thing, and wait again. The light hand contact rekindled some memory within. My body’s own wisdom guided me back in a delicious unfolding.
Like a song returning to your lips which needs to be sung, a song who’s lyrics have been elusive, my back started to remember how to enjoy its full length, to take up its full width and at the same time fill out its depth. Ah joy.
So subtle, and natural and elusive on my own. This gentle touch of these beautifully trained hands, helped me reconnect with the natural energy and fullness that was hidden within my belief. Freed from that limiting belief I can now breathe more easily, no pain or discomfort and a wonderful sense of unity in my torso.
Thank you my fellow colleagues and friends in the work.
Lucy Ascham is an Alexander Technique Teacher who loves mutual support and being guided through the fog of her blind spots back towards wholeness.
