Today is the 58th anniversary of Alexander’s death.

He died October 10th, 1955. So yeah, his copyright has run out in most places, but not his long persuasive influence on the work. Chair and table work is still the international norm, and a BodyChance purpose is to change that totally over the next 25 years. I want to live to see it.

Following bad advice almost cost me a lifetime friendship.

I am an advocate of using mentors, a seasoned professional you might say. I am also a mentor to others. But be careful who you pick, and be careful how you listen.

Pick your mentor because they have already done what you want to do, and because you intuitively feel that they know something you don't know.

However, once you pick a mentor and start listening, here's one lesson I have learnt with great pain: ensure you are congruent with whatever advice you act upon.

Congruent?

A year ago today I sat down to start a new adventure.

It all began in print, starting with this daily blog, based on the advice of my mentor and business coach Paul Lemberg. After hearing my story he remarked "Jeremy, if you have woken up crying every morning for a year, it's time for you to change something." He was talking about Japan, and my need to situate my life in an English-speaking environment.

"It's simple" he coached "Open more studios overseas."

However, for that you need partners.

I heard recently that for the first time, a new generation of teenagers emerging in the States are not rushing out to get a driver's license. When all your friends can be texted, videoed or walkie talked from your bedroom, who needs a license to drive a car?

So Daryl Joyce, an Alexander Technique teacher from the UK who once visited BodyChance in Tokyo, has decided to join as a Lite Member of ATCS to focus on increasing his online presence. Smart move.

Giora Pinkas has just sent a letter to the besieged AmSAT SoCal teachers – as I suspected in my previous blog on this topic, John Baron's first letter was just an opening shot in a sustained campaign to defame BodyChance and my own reputation.

This morning I was selecting a top to wear. and shuffling through the neat plastic packets that my Japanese laundry service provides, and I heard my Self thinking "Oh, I should wear that brown one today because I am working at home." Then I noticed: "But I want to wear the blue one!" The contrary thought was: "Save that blue one for teaching, you should wear the brown one today."

I wore the blue one.

As soon as he could walk, Zopa was always trying to run away. He was a little Nepalese boy living in the Solu Khumbu valley, and drove his mother nuts. Finally, when he was around four years old, she decided to let him run away...

So off he marched, up a hill and through a confusing labyrinth of pathways till he arrived at the hermitage cave of a famous deceased Lama. To the astonished onlookers, who had followed his intrepid pilgrimage up the hill, he sat down, crossed his legs  and solemnly announced

"I am the Lawudo Lama."

Tears again this morning – it happens whenever I meet my true Self. This morning the trigger came in the form of an email that  touched me deeply - a writer sharing the idea that one of our true human needs is to contribute to others. It took me back to a moment years ago that I had forgotten…

I was teaching in an upstairs room across from Artarmon station in Sydney, at my brother-in-law's Alexander school that he ran with my sister. That day the students – who were outside-the-box kind of people (because that's who Bill was too) - asked me to process their personality types.

Welcome to my 30 Day Challenge!

Almost magically, we also have 30 teachers and students in a community that will every day be exploring how to set Alexander Technique careers on fire! You know – get more students.

If you didn't join, you still join can but the offer of an extra month and a free E-Copy of my book will finish very soon. (Actually, if you are in Tokyo, it already did!) Jump right to this link now to qualify.

What you would love to study next?

Maybe you came to Alexander Technique already knowing a discipline – musicians being the obvious example. Maybe you have something you don't imagine as a "movement discipline" or "activity plan" such as working in an office for 20 years – but that could still work as a niche. I've been encouraging several of my students to blog and identify a market of discouraged salary workers looking for more meaning in their life…