Sketching ideas for my new website

People are always trying to sell the secret to success. Whatever it is, it usually involves an intense mindset that allows you to succeed against all odds, push through resistance, rise above the fray, separate from the pack. Except for most of us, visions of success involve being part of something greater than ourselves, participating fully in the world, in connection with other people. It’s a little confusing.

Here is the problem: they never talk about your bodyset!

Let me tell you a secret. A gentle bodyset has propelled me into the stratosphere of success. Success for me is defined by satisfaction in three areas:

1) Financial
2) Creative
3) Personal

A bodyset involves the inter-dependence between the way you think and the inner feeling of your body. Gentle thoughts make happy bodies. It’s not rocket science. Now I won’t lie – it’s taken a long time for me to realize just how important an inwardly gentle attitude is for generating revenue from my dream job, fully inviting my creative spirit into all that I do, and having time for a personal life even though I’m an entrepreneur. Of course, I tried everything else first. I hope you don’t have to suffer the way I did.

Here is my secret bodyset success generator that you can apply to any instructions you might receive from teachers, coaches, etc about how to have a successful mindset.

Add your body in by inserting the word “gentle.” These 4 “mindset” points are lifted straight from this Forbes article, so I can show you how it works.

1. (Gently) Ditch the Fixed Mindset and Go For (Gentle) Growth

2. (Gently) Adopt An Abundance Mentality, (Gently let go of) Scarcity Mentality

3. (Gently) Stop Fearing Failure. Instead, Be Willing to Fail (Gently)

4. Create a (Gentle) Long-Term Vision Instead of Only Short-Term Goals

You get my point. If a gentle attitude is at the center of everything that you do, it will bring you a certain quality of embodiment. Your body will respond to the quality of your energy and intention. A gentle attitude is one of the 6 Attention preludes that people learn in my classes, Embodied Learning Systems Mastermind Groups, and lessons. You find out about them below.

1) Mobile Body Alignment™ Intensive: 12 awareness points of the legs

Sunday, May 23, 1 – 4 pm EDT, $50. All Welcome! Go HERE for more information, if you are ready to register go HERE.
We’ll take a deep dive into the dermatome mapping roots of the 12 Mobile Body Alignment points of the legs. Only 12 registrants allowed so that we can really go in depth – so register soon!

2) Want an individual course of study?
My root practice, The Alexander Technique, addresses the use of the whole self: body, mind, and spirit. Mobile Body Alignment™  addresses each specific body part and segment of our nervous system, wrapping distinct and articulate parts back into a sense of your embodied wholeness. You can use it to target specific issues in surprising ways. It’s a super fun problem solving system! Book a single private session online or in person. We can design a course of study based on your specific issues and needs. If you would just like to meet and talk, you can book a free 15 minute consultation.

3) Embodied Learning Systems Facilitated Mastermind for online embodiment educators:
All Mastermind groups are currently full. EMAIL ME to be put on the waiting list.

4) The Experimenters Union is now open to all professional embodiment teachers. Go HERE to read more. Your first 30 days are free. We have two meetings a week (Eastern Daylight Times given): Monday nights from 5:00 – 6:15, and Fridays from 12:00 noon – 1:15 pm. Bookend your week engaging with colleagues who support you and challenge you!

5) Need to re-juvinate but still struggling financially during this dreadful pandema-recession? Check out my YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

I am writing this post for both teachers and learners. Both of us have been on one side or the other of that equation at some point in our lives, even if it’s only with our children.

In my experience, emphasizing excellence does not bring the desired result. It only causes over-efforting and disappointment, because it assumes that excellence is definable in some kind of standard way. It also implies, in English anyway, that there is something at the top of a hierarchy called “excellence” that everything else will be judged by. It is very linear and does not reflect the reality of learning at all.

Learning happens in for me more in starbursts, or side trips, or waterslides into giant pools of muck.

Many of us have traumas around learning, especially in trying to understand words or verbal requests. Zoom has exacerbated this because words are all we have! Many teachers also have traumas around it actually.

Have I understood what the teacher said? How do I know? Have I communicated clearly with the student? When it comes an individual’s experience of their own moving body and the words a teacher uses, there are so many possible interpretations that happen between a teacher expressing a verbal instruction, the student receiving it, and the non-verbal experience of one’s own movement, it’s kind of mind boggling.

I’m really interested in defusing that situation.

So my favorite new teaching word is, drum roll,

ORDINARY

That’s not a word you hear in dance classes right? Actually, I can’t say I’ve ever heard it in a movement class of any kind.

If you find yourself in a learning environment, try adding this word to whatever instruction you get:

– ordinary jump
– ordinary run
– ordinary stretch

If you are a teacher, try giving this word as a possible way in which your students can explore a question or activity.

I find it so refreshing. Right now, can you move your hands and arms in an ordinary way, just to see how they work? Try simple actions:

– swing

– fold joints

– unfold joints

– some bones can turn in their sockets, and some can’t. Which ones?

Notice the sensations you have as you move in ordinary ways. Don’t dance!

For me, it makes clear that there is no such thing as ordinary, which means there must be no such thing as excellent.

This is the kind of exploration I’ll be using in my upcoming class on legs. Yes, we cover alot of anatomical information, and we detail very specific locations and connections within the body. Step by step, we bring alive parts of the body that may have slipped out of your awareness long ago, or other parts that may have never consciously been combined with other parts. Yet, the capacity to do that is quite ordinary and doable, nothing special…and yet so so satisfying. I hope you will join us!

You can find out more about the workshop HERE.

WAYS TO CONNECT:

1) Want an individual course of study?
I teach classical Alexander Technique, Alexander through the lens of developmental movement, and Mobile Body Alignment™. If you would just like to meet and talk, you can book a free 15 minute consultation.

Book a single private session ONLINE or IN PERSON. In person lessons are only on Wednesdays, at Balance Arts, 151 West 30th Street and slots are limited.

Mobile Body Alignment™ addresses each specific body part and segment of our nervous system, wrapping distinct and articulate parts back into a sense of your embodied wholeness. You can use it to target specific issues in surprising ways. It’s a super fun problem solving system! We can design a course of study based on your specific issues and needs.

2) Facilitated Mastermind for online embodiment educators:
Only 2 spots left in the upcoming double value 6 month facilitated Mastermind! It’s open all varieties of embodiment educators who want to thrive physically and financially in the online space. The next group starts May 12 so book your interview soon.

3) Need to re-juvinate but still struggling financially during this dreadful pandema-recession? Check out my YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

Exploring different kinds of mini-squats with a range of ages and bodies

CLICK HERE TO FOR INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER FOR THE NEXT MOBILE BODY ALIGNMENT INTENSIVE ON LEGS. ONLY 12 SPOTS AVAILABLE SO GET YOURS SOON!

Apologies – last weeks newsletter had a bad link! If anyone wants to check it out, here is the article about proprioception and how they have located a gene that is responsible for conveying proprioceptive information from the body to the brain. This information about internal movement and pressure is not only important for motor control and movement, but also for other autonomic functions like blood pressure regulation! Amazing. So what that means is if you can’t feel internal pressure in your body it contributes to high blood pressure, which is related to heart disease and other stress related conditions.

“Just appreciating all the things we can feel can invoke a sense of awe. If one of us snuck up behind you and moved a single hair, you would immediately know it,” Chesler says. “This is one of the most amazing biological machines.”

The sensory experience of mobility is a big focus of all the work that I do. I want to restore that sense to your body in all its glorious detail. The feeling is gliding and smooth, sometimes exhilarating, sometimes soothing. When it comes to aging, however it can begin to be scary because your balance is more tenuous! You may find yourself bracing and stiffening, narrowing your range of movement. This in turn can start to make you feel weak because your muscles are not moving within their full range. Research has shown that range of motion and strength are in fact intimately related.

The solution: If you get dizzy, just pause in your movement until you feel stable again. This works great if you are dancing (yes, stillness is allowed in dance class!), or walking, or doing any other kind of movement that stimulates your sense of balance.

Pausing is really different than bracing or stiffening. And if tipping off your vertical balance causes dizziness, you can find more upright ways of exploring mobility, which is going to keep you strong as well! Experimenting with mini-squats, for instance, is a great way to keep your legs strong and challenge your habitual range of motion. Can you slowly go up and down, as if you were going to sit on a chair, without ever landing your butt on it? Do it slowly – not fast, as in some fitness regimens – so that you can challenge your own habitual range of motion. You should feel a burn in your muscles, and that’s good! But you should not feel pain in your joints.

When we squat, for most of us there is a point at which our knees just…stop moving. Usually it’s a bit too early, not activating all the muscles of the legs and back as fully as possible. And then we fall into the chair. How can we counter this habit?

Here is an image of one of Mobile Body Alignment Points in your knee. Each one of these landmarks, though strongly bound by ligaments, is designed to have a little or a lot of movement potential. Not bracing one of these points against another (for instance, your tibia or lower leg against your femur, or upper leg) will keep your muscles toned, alert, working eccentrically. It actually feels great! This image is looking at a person’s right leg from the front:

Explore each one of these landmarks in the movement of mini-squat and standing. Explore them separately, and together. If you do, you will have woken up every muscle in your legs and many important muscles in your back. You will keep your legs strong and supple.

Enjoy!