It was August 1988, the year of the Brighton Congress and the first time Marj had stepped on to the shores of England since (she said): "…the Germans came and went."

I'd been an Alexander Technique teacher for 8 years, now suffering a humiliating and debilitating injury: I could hardly pick up a cup of tea in my left hand. Three months earlier my father had died; and just before arriving at the Congress, I had dislocated my left shoulder while rock climbing in Sweden.

Back in 1980, one of my key methods to attract students to our Sydney studio was to stand on the stage in Hyde Park, and declare myself the ringmaster of a $100 competition. This was the most bizarre competition that anyone had heard or seen before, and I used to attract a large crowd of bemused onlookers, curious to discover the "trick" of my simple challenge.

To win, you just had to stand up from a chair without pulling your head back.

Steven Shaw is a living example of the power of the niche approach in spreading Alexander's work. Steven has managed to build a million dollar business around the activity of swimming. Yesterday, his work was featured in The Guardian's Swimming Blog…

It's the crazy season, but that does not stop my members from continuing to work on their Alexander Technique teaching success. While a lot of people are off to a party, they are here pursuing their passion to stay awake and realise a dream. It's a big purpose, and I am privileged to be learning from them all.

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?

The Six-Day War was fought between Egypt and Israel from June 5th and June 10th, 1967.

I was a youngster at the time, but one of my oldest and dearest friends is an Egyptian actor who was conscripted into the army as a result. He is an artist, and like me, abhors the whole concept of murder and mayhem as a way to handle disagreements.

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…

Are Yoga, Pilates and other “fitness” schemes so different from Alexander Technique?

Alexander Technique teachers suspect they are fundamentally different, but for the public it appears that all these methods, including ours, utilize the study of movements to improve posture, cure pain, and bring about well being with greater awareness. Our outcomes appear to match - even if our methods are different - so our claim that “we are not like them” falls on deaf ears.

Alexander’s four books tell the tale of FM's own thinking about the work. What strikes me most about this, after 35 years of my own experience, is how I came to his same conclusion: it’s all about the relationship of the head/spinal complex. This is the Universal Constant that Alexander named in his final book The Universal Constant in Living.