Suddenly my phone is screaming at me…

(Who is calling at this late hour!?)

"Hallo, BodyChance Studio.

I'm sorry, but now we are close—"

"Please can you help me!?"

(I think: shouldn't we at least do names first?)

"Who is this speaking?"

"Oh I'm sorry, my name is Harry."

(I guess he needs to have this conversation now…)

"What's the problem Harry?"

"I am in a lot of pain. I can't stand it."

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.

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…

Carol at first thought:

"My God, Jeremy has an ego on him. Fancy calling his workshop "Golden Week". Bit over the top isn't it?"

Of course I heard all this AFTER - while we were laughing. I was able to inform Carol, that Golden Week was not a name I made up for BodyChance's annual residential - it was what the Japanese called it!

Golden Week happens in the first week of May every year. It is a Japanese version of Easter. Three public holidays, near a weekend, and everyone goes home to see family.

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.

To live a public, vulnerable life takes a lot of self-love.

When you are looking to others to validate your actions: HOPELESS.

You have the life you imagine others want you to live…

• I must do this for my children
• My partner won't like that
• Can I really say that to him?

And so on and so on until you don't know who is listening, and you don't know what to say and you end up in bed, in the morning, with no energy to get up, with no energy to live.

This is not the life you want to lead.

Discovery needs celebration.

Without it, the physiology required to imprint insight fails to energize. Celebration is physiology - it facilitates oligodendroglial* cells to myelinate the axon pathways ignited by your discovery. The result is the ability to act faster.

Yesterday, I nearly yelled at one of my students.

Metaphorically, I certainly did. These days I have stopped being middle-class nice – what a wasted life! - instead telling it how I see it. My trainee was a robust, heavy-set man with a problem. He could handle it.

There is a secret to BodyChance's Golden Week residential, and I am going to reveal it.

Anyone who follows my feed on Facebook knows there is a frenzy of activity every May.

During the Japanese holidays of Golden Week (what a great name!) BodyChance holds its annual residential. We started it in 1999, and still going strong.

Back in the 70s, when I first arrived in London to train, the big scandal was group teaching.

Of course, EVERYONE KNEW you could not teach Alexander's discovery in groups. It was almost a heresy back then, a betrayal of principle. What are you thinking!?

Except that "unreasonable" teachers started to teach in groups.

The story I heard - back then - was of an infuriated Dr Wilfred Barlow, at the last STAT AGM he ever attended, pointing a finger quivering in anger at Walter Carrington:

"It is because of you!"

The game of BodyChance success continues to startle and challenge me.

It’s been 17 years now since I started in 1999, and for the first 15 years we experienced an annual growth of around 17%.

Until we didn’t.

When you have 2 trainees, and you add another two trainees, you grow 100%. That’s easy growth. When you have 128 trainees, and you add 2 more, you’ve barely grown more than 1%! Not so easy.

We are at that place now, and I don’t know the rules.

Which way do we go now?