Some mornings I wake up feeling low and wonder: why do I do this?

The worry, the constant need to stay ahead, the relationships that need time, attention and care - it feels simply exhausting and I wonder if there is really any benefit for me in all this…

Ever had a morning like that?

I get them occasionally, and each time I ask myself the question:

Why?

Why do I this instead of anything else I could be doing?

Alexander Technique is a difficult sell - I think we all know that.

How do you sell air? How do you sell nothing? Any words you use - as I expressed in my previous blog - end up situating you with a dozen other techniques, all available at half the price of your lesson and much easier to understand.

They give you a set of exercises!

This week, like every other, the members in my coaching group are continuing to focus on their business skills, and how those skills relate to their teaching skills. I think one of the big surprises when you start to work on your Alexander practise, comes when you realise that the service you offer is inextricably bound to the business you are creating - it's not possible to separate the two, as some of the comments I made this week illuminate…

Suddenly Bessie blurts out:

“But how will I help all the people around me in such tension?! How can they bear it? What can I do?”

Bessie is tightening up worse than the people she is talking about!

What to do?

Welcome to group teaching, where my response to Bessie is being witnessed by 10 other people. It is no longer just Bessie than I am responding to, I need to include 10 other listeners…

“Bessie,” I say, “Just remember how lucky you are that you know something that they don’t know…”

I always know two hands will shoot up before I have barely finished my sentence:

"Has someone got something they want to explore with me?"

Welcome to Basil's Music ProCourse - BodyChance's Teacher Education course exclusively for musicians. This is the niche experiment at it's finest: a band of enthusiastic students intent on developing their skill by leveraging Alexander's Discovery in their playing.

I am standing there, looking out on an ocean of people - all wearing orange!

It was a Sydney Easter in 1981, and the crowd was gathered for another "celebration" with Bhagwan Rajneesh's band of merry followers. The Orange People, as they were called then, wanted Alexander Technique in their line up of workshops, but it was all gratis: pitch your workshop to the crowd, see who comes.

As I stood there I thought: I have a unique marketing opportunity: I better not screw up.

Alexander died on October 10th, 1955, but did he really?

He still lives in the minds and hearts of many of his followers. It's a blessing and a curse. Twirling around the air at my school in Japan, you can often catch the phrase…

"Is that really the Alexander Technique?"

Victoria Stanham is an Alexander Technique teacher working Montevideo, Uruguay. She volunteered to be a case study in my free three month online course "12 Steps to Financial Success as an Alexander Technique Teacher" earlier this year.

How precious do you need to be about the work?

Dr. Barlow, back in the days after Alexander's death, strove to identify Alexander Technique teachers with Doctors. The constitution of STAT – and the affiliated Societies that followed it – were shaped by strict, purist values: protect our profession; behave in a dignified manner.

Greg Holdaway is in Japan teaching for BodyChance, and yesterday morning we had a wonderful conversation about chairwork verses activity work. He told me about an extraordinary 10 minutes of being whisked in and out of a chair by Patrick Macdonald, just a few years before Patrick passed away.