May 2021

29 May

For Your Own Good

by Jeremy Chance

Abuse can be life-saving - although that may initially be hard to conceive.

It’s a matter of perspective: for one person, it is care; for the other, it is abuse. As I pointed out in my previous daily “I Was Physically Abused” , Alexander Discovered the gap between perception and conception, the place where all misconceptions arise.

“You can’t know a thing by an instrument that is wrong.” FMA

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28 May

I Was Physically Abused

by Jeremy Chance

I once had a girlfriend who adored me most when I was depressed.

She labelled “depression” differently from me – for her, I was real when I was “depressed”. However, when I thought of myself as balanced, happy and outward going, she found me erratic, hysterical and lost in a world of my imaginings.

Who was right?

She was.

27 May

My Reputation is Ruined

by Jeremy Chance

A big hand descended down from the space above me.

That hand whacked me on the chest.

Not once, but three times.

Like the clapping at a Japanese temple, this was a holy moment in my life. The voice accompanying hand was wrathful:

26 May

Body & Emotional Unity

by Jeremy Chance

In 1978 Paul Collins - one of the Directors of my original Alexander training school in London - told us his story about the London Bus service.

23 May

My Dinner Date with Marj

by Jeremy Chance

I was finally at my dinner date with Marj, my 97-year-old Alexander teacher, who was sharper than anyone I knew.

At our dinner, I slowly realised she had invited me there as part of an unspoken zen-like right-of-passage around my dog-like eating behaviour.

It was my test, my moment of transformation.

21 May

How To Slow Down Your Eating

by Jeremy Chance

Marj was a stickler for manners.

And today I am writing about how she showed me to slow down my eating. I often think that I trained twice – once on a STAT-sanctioned course in London in the 70’s; then again with Marjorie Barstow in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

20 May

God is Dog Backwards

by Jeremy Chance

Dogs are outstanding in the way they eat.

A dog will demolish huge hunks of meat with minimal chewing – gulped down the tube, and disappearing faster than you can shovel in their bowel. They do chew, but on the bone later.

Is food consumed quickly as a biologically driven quest to eat the most meat first?

19 May

Where Are Your Shoes?

by Jeremy Chance

Before Japanese Golden Week and my series of 11 emails on “How To Teach Online” (all on my blog link below), I wrote this about my precious teacher Marjorie Barstow (1899~1995):

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That wasn’t the last time I got pierced by those penetrating eyes.

It happened 7 years later in one of the terrifying moments of my life…

01 May

Lucia Walker - Compassionate Communicator

by Jeremy Chance

Lucia Walker first introduced me to the work of Marshall Rosenberg (1934-2015). His work goes by the more familiar name: “Non-Violent Communication”, however, I prefer the alternate desciption: “Compassionate Communication”.