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.

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."

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.

Have you guessed my passion is for Alexander's discovery?

Duh. Of course you have!

And part of my passion is finding our how to effectively communicate online. Communication is part of my 12 ATSuccess Steps. These, I am always evolving and adapting through experimentation.

James, an AT teacher in the UK and a member of ATSuccess Pro, wrote to me today about yesterday's dispatch:

***

In struggling to understand your blog published today, I have read it several times, smiled a bit and just for fun referred to my anatomy text books. You said:

"... Without it, the physiology required to imprint insight fails to energize. Celebration is physiology - it facilitates oligodentroglial cells to myelinate the axon pathways ignited by your discovery."

Being successful over a long period is the sign of an intelligence at work - luck or special circumstances play only a minor role.

There's no moment where I can just coast along - no matter what it is I am doing. Of course I can, and for few years it will be OK, but eventually little signs of decay will appear, blemishes on what was previously incorruptible.

How long would it take you to give 24 individual lessons to 20 people?

First off, would you work an 8 hour day?

If so, how many in the morning and afternoon? 8? 12? 16?

In my heyday, I gave 13 on average, 16 on a busy day. Now, I wouldn't dream of it. But 6 in the morning, and 4 in the afternoon, I could do that. 10 a day.

Could you do that?

Then keep reading.

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 POETRY

By the river in Kyoto. I remember.

Family. Two girls lying flat, a father writing. The river flowing by.

Tribes. A dad holidaying his brood. Takes the time.

Blood. Girls. Teenagers about to fly. Different times of life.

What holds all this together?

THE ENGINEERING