One feature of a scientific breakthrough is often some kind of "instrument" that is able to organise observed phenomena in original, unforeseen ways. It can take many forms: a physical device such as a telescope, and/or an idea, such as "the earth is round"

(oh come on, really? I think I'll burn you alive for thinking like that)

One feature of this "device" is that it recognises patterns in phenomena that had not been previously identified.

And the holy grail of science - > it successfully predicts behaviour. EVERY TIME.

Anyone who decides to train as a teacher of Alexander’s discovery is a hero.

Firstly, you are motivated by only a higher calling. There is no evidence for professional success – in fact, quite the opposite. The situation is bleak, with many teachers unable to make a full-time living from teaching.

This is despite the fact, that it takes three years or more to qualify as a teacher in today’s environment. And you won’t get away with paying less than $30,000, despite where you train.

Why would you do that?

Because you care.

I’m hitting the stop button on my series of three.

Instead – today’s is Grace’s birthday, and it’s a good moment to reflect on my (and yours) mammalian instincts. These most often remain hidden to you, yet determine 99% of your actions.

That 1% is important: that 1% is Steve Jobs @ Apple. It’s Gandhi in India.

Conscious Constructive Guidance, the 1%.

As you live, injuries are natural part of living.

My right leg has been screaming at me these last few days, and I am wondering why.

Pains like this seem to mysteriously appear – an unexpected discomfort in a part of your movement system that seems to have no rhyme or reason. It’s irritating, consistent and defies your efforts to remedy it.

In cases like these, I whip out my “detective” principle of movement analysis:

There is always a reason.

(Don’t believe Coca Cola’s “No Reason” - it’s bullshit.)

I hope you like my blog title today?

This is the mind of a person in serious conflict.

Yesterday I was rabbiting on about wanting what you don’t like. You do your taxes even when you don’t like it, right? Happens every day. However, unless you are awake to it, you will can your life harder than necessary. You add garbage to something that can be done cleanly.

The operating principle here is: you don’t have to like it, to want it.

In 1999, I started touching in a new kind of way.

I touch like a Catholic – reverent, studious and caring. (The good ones)

The “studious” part is related to my anatomical studies, and putting together BodyThinking – my new online training program for analysing movements.

I would specifically target a muscle group - say the iliopsoas muscle in the pelvis upper leg and back are – and induce an action specific of that muscle.

Most people, when planning their website, worry about the content.

Wrong thing to worry about.

***

(actually, it's better not to worry about anything. Shantideva, an Indian sage in the 8th century, had the final words to say about that:

If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying?
If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?

Thanks for putting an end to that one Shanti-san)

****

The Dalai Lama wrote that the best way to help others is to be selfish first: he called it "selfish wisdom."

The most obvious example is on an aeroplane.

When your hostess shows you how to use the oxygen mask, she will also advise that you put your mask on first, before you help a child with their mask. You before the child, not the child first (as most people would think).

It's obvious when you think about it - how can you help a child if you pass out? Then two of you would be harmed.

Clare-Newman Constance pished back about my email "Teachers who Speak Nonsense":

Why is “send your back, back” wrong?

All the others I get, and seem like cultural norms but not what AT teachers say.

But we (or some) do say “back, back”

***

OK, you may know what you mean by that.

Does your student?

Here’s a few things I don’t like:

1. Back is a vague term, suggesting a plane or surface area, without volume or substance.

If you've been following my current mini-series, you know I am up to REASON 3.

Reason 3?

There were 4 reasons at-the-time COO Carlos Ghosn gave for why Nissan was about to crash and burn in 1999. In one of the most spectacular corporate recoveries ever seen: within one year Nissan returned to profit after 6 years of losses; within a few years Nissan had vaulted into the positon of the most profitable car-maker in the world.

The breath-taking speed of this transformation was the essence of the 3rd reason Carlos wrote about:

Just 7 days ago, Carlos Ghosn stepped down as CEO of Nissan.

He had a remarkable run, from 1999 turning around an iconic company that was about to crash; then going on to produce a series of "zero-emission" electric cars for developing countries to protect our environment. He is doing good in the world.

In Japan they nicknamed him "7/11" in tribute to his prodigious working ethic.

One of the delights of my current life is working with a variety of teachers from all over the world. They often inspire my daily epistles - I swiped today's Subject line off a Texas gal just 10 minutes ago. (Thanks Julie, now put that gun away.)

Why do these teachers and students come?

Not to get rich. None of us are rich. Are you rich?

Perhaps we are philanthropists masquerading as professional teachers…

Here's what you've most likely already given:

Since I invited Pecs Minor to the party, man are "my guys" having fun or what?!

Don't know what I am talking about?

Pecs Minor is a muscle: one of "my guys" = Pectoralis Minor. Pecca for short.

Thanks to Don (not Burton, Weed, but the Burton started all this 40 years ago) I recently discovered my little Pecca.

My little Pecca is behaving in scurrilous manner, getting away with all kinds of mischief for a number of years now.

How's yours behaving?

Here's how you find that out…

***

Back in the 1980s, I negotiated a deal with an upmarket Chiropractic Centre in Neutral Bay, a suburb full of married woman who practised Yoga because they hadn't heard of Pilates yet. Luckily, Alexander was in vogue back then, so I could demand my terms.

I told the Manager: I can pay you when I teach, that's it. No monthly rent, sorry.

I was happy to walk away from the deal.

*** SIDE BAR ***

That's the simple secret to being strong in a negotiation. As English billionaire Felix Dennis puts it in 88 The Narrow Road: