You are not designed to spend a good part of your day looking down at your tummy.

And yet, I met a man who did mostly that.

I was working backstage at a theatre in London in the late 70s - yes, THAT long ago - when I met him: his posture was so rounded that he looked like his head was consuming his body for breakfast.

When I told him I was in London to do the 3-year training as an Alexscovery Teacher, he got curious.

"3 years?" he remarked in a strong Cornish accent. "Maybe you can help with my stomach?"

"What's wrong with it?"

A new idea about Group Teaching has recently taken grip in my mind.

I spent today preparing and recording the first class for my Group Teaching Discovery Course, which starts July 10th. And I got clearer and clearer about it…

Have you ever noticed - just when a student is starting to do best - they decide to leave?

Saying things like:

“Got so much to work on now, so grateful.”

Or

“I am feeling overwhelmed; I need time to digest.”

Or

“It’s getting hard to find time – I think I need a little break. I’ll be back.”

It’s crap. It’s the conscious mind being duped by the mammal inside.

In a session - just yesterday - an ATSuccess member asked an innocent question:

“Do I need to be an expert of a student’s activity, to be able to help them?”

Intellectually it’s obvious – Tiger Woods’ coach doesn’t play golf like Tiger! Does that stop him seeing areas for development? Older, beer-gutted men are often coaching baseball teams in America – would these old guys survive on the field?

No.

Years ago, a Journalist from a popular “alternative cool” magazine called “Kokoro” – which means “Heart” in Japanese – came along to BodyChance’s studio in Meguro to do a feature on our work.

I suggested she come and watch “the Chancer” - thanks to Carol Ervine for my new nickname! - running a Basic Course class. Basic Course is the program we offer in Japan to the Public.

***SIDE BAR ***

BTW: the name of your group is important, even critical.

Calling our public offering “Basic Course” immediately suggests a higher level…

People have asked me:

“Why do you insist on calling our work ‘Alexander's discovery’?”

It’s a valid question, and one I continue to ask my Self. The simplist answer I have is this:

Alexander's discovery is just that, a discovery. It is not a technique or method.

It’s like the realization that the earth revolves around the sun. Knowing it doesn’t change it, but it changes you. It changes your ideas, your beleifs, your choices.

Alexander's discovery can be expressed in several different ways:

My first crisis happened within 2 years of my 18 years of living in Japan happened in Kyoto,

Jaldhara had our young daughter Angelica in the pram, and had just said goodbye. I turned, and started heading down the escalator to go to Tokyo…

And I tripped. I tumbled down the stairs. And - by a remarkable confluence of unexpected factors - dislocated my arm. OUCH!

The worst part was being alone. Speaking no Japanese. Having no idea what to do next.

So I screamed. I screamed as loud as the air in my body would let me…

We'd got complaints. It was not going well…

This is the final of 3 dispatches on BodyChance's escapades within the corporate corridors of power. I write the story of our triumphant return with a new, re-engineered BodyChance group experience.

I was the re-engineering.

Turns out, it was a bit of a ladies club.

Do you start planning your teaching day by thinking:

"How could I best undermine my students today? How could I make sure they lose confidence, motivation and the desire to study Alexander's discovery with me?"

No, of course not.

Would it shock to know that you could be doing exactly that?

Not intentionally, but does it matter?

Teaching groups involves giving affirmation to students - but often teachers, in their desire to celebrate an achievement, affirm the wrong thing.

I've always been trying to run away from Japan.

I feel like Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in the Godfather III* movie, when he growls:

"Every time I think I have left, they keep pulling me back in!"

The first time, I took a 6 month sabbatical from BodyChance, and lived in Australia with my family. I tried to start BodyChance in Sydney, and all I succeeded in doing was losing $40,000, disappointing 5 trainees, ending my marriage, getting another retinal detachment and very nearly destroying a beautiful friendship.