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 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

One feature of a scientific breakthrough is often some kind of "instrument" that is able to organise observed phenomena in original, unforeseen ways. It can take many forms: a physical device such as a telescope, and/or an idea, such as "the earth is round"

(oh come on, really? I think I'll burn you alive for thinking like that)

One feature of this "device" is that it recognises patterns in phenomena that had not been previously identified.

And the holy grail of science - > it successfully predicts behaviour. EVERY TIME.

Anyone who decides to train as a teacher of Alexander’s discovery is a hero.

Firstly, you are motivated by only a higher calling. There is no evidence for professional success – in fact, quite the opposite. The situation is bleak, with many teachers unable to make a full-time living from teaching.

This is despite the fact, that it takes three years or more to qualify as a teacher in today’s environment. And you won’t get away with paying less than $30,000, despite where you train.

Why would you do that?

Because you care.

Most people, when planning their website, worry about the content.

Wrong thing to worry about.

***

(actually, it's better not to worry about anything. Shantideva, an Indian sage in the 8th century, had the final words to say about that:

If you can solve your problem, then what is the need of worrying?
If you cannot solve it, then what is the use of worrying?

Thanks for putting an end to that one Shanti-san)

****

One of the delights of my current life is working with a variety of teachers from all over the world. They often inspire my daily epistles - I swiped today's Subject line off a Texas gal just 10 minutes ago. (Thanks Julie, now put that gun away.)

Why do these teachers and students come?

Not to get rich. None of us are rich. Are you rich?

Perhaps we are philanthropists masquerading as professional teachers…

Here's what you've most likely already given:

Back in the 1980s, I negotiated a deal with an upmarket Chiropractic Centre in Neutral Bay, a suburb full of married woman who practised Yoga because they hadn't heard of Pilates yet. Luckily, Alexander was in vogue back then, so I could demand my terms.

I told the Manager: I can pay you when I teach, that's it. No monthly rent, sorry.

I was happy to walk away from the deal.

*** SIDE BAR ***

That's the simple secret to being strong in a negotiation. As English billionaire Felix Dennis puts it in 88 The Narrow Road:

On July 4th, 1907 Willie Keith stood helplessly in Battle Creek, Michigan watching a fire consume his precious factory.*

Willie was 46, yet he had launched his company barely a year before. He’d already worked for 25 years as the unofficial business manager for a famous Seventh-day Adventist Sanitarium (re-invented from the word ‘sanatorium’) under the shadow of his gregarious and extroverted brother Dr John Henry.

“Wow daddy, everywhere here has free Wi-Fi.”

My two girls – 14 and 17 - are with me in Japan. We are wandering around inside the sultry envelope of a damp Tokyo summer. Of course, two teenage girls are way more interested in free WiFi than temples and boring stuff like that. Unless there’s a photo op…

“Hey dad, take my photo walking down these stairs.”

Why? I wonder.

“I want to post it to Instagram.”

Instagram. Right. Still trying to figure that out.