“People overestimate what can be achieved in a year,
and underestimate what can be achieved in five”

Glenn Livingston made that remark. I’ve thought it over many times and concluded that it is a great remark.

Not immediately obvious though, is it?

First – to get it - you must be a person with a vision, with a mission. I believe EVERY reader of my Daily dispatches has the heart of a missionary, is a great lover of Alexander's discovery and enjoys being reassured that they are “not wrong”.

Are you a detective when it come to your co-ordination issues?

I wrote about my approach recently in "My Leg is in Pain, and I have 3 Theories Why"

And Marja Krappe read that, then wrote back with her version of the same:

Couldn't agree more with that 1st theory.

I also got sudden pain in my right hip joint one day after walking about 10 min.

As you live, injuries are natural part of living.

My right leg has been screaming at me these last few days, and I am wondering why.

Pains like this seem to mysteriously appear – an unexpected discomfort in a part of your movement system that seems to have no rhyme or reason. It’s irritating, consistent and defies your efforts to remedy it.

In cases like these, I whip out my “detective” principle of movement analysis:

There is always a reason.

(Don’t believe Coca Cola’s “No Reason” - it’s bullshit.)

Alexander didn’t invent the concept of Constructive Conscious Guidance.

Siddhārtha beat him to that by twenty-five hundred years.

Sorry old man, but psycho-physical unity, debauched kinaesthesia, inhibition, direction and the power of habit were already well-worked concepts before Jesus first appeared on the planet.

Not new. Nor original.

I hope you like my blog title today?

This is the mind of a person in serious conflict.

Yesterday I was rabbiting on about wanting what you don’t like. You do your taxes even when you don’t like it, right? Happens every day. However, unless you are awake to it, you will can your life harder than necessary. You add garbage to something that can be done cleanly.

The operating principle here is: you don’t have to like it, to want it.

I once wrecked the brake system of my Toyota Corolla.

I did it by backing out of our drive with my handbrake on.

"Stupid car" I thought "Why is it playing up today?"

Of course, it wasn't THE CAR that was stupid, it was ME. I was trying to drive the car backwards with the handbrake on! Ever since then I have used this expression in my teaching:

People push themselves against their own handbrake.

In 1999, I started touching in a new kind of way.

I touch like a Catholic – reverent, studious and caring. (The good ones)

The “studious” part is related to my anatomical studies, and putting together BodyThinking – my new online training program for analysing movements.

I would specifically target a muscle group - say the iliopsoas muscle in the pelvis upper leg and back are – and induce an action specific of that muscle.

It fascinates me how I avoid deeply thinking through doing difficult things.

Another name for that is "Conscious, Constructive Guidance" from You-Know-Who.

I first noticed this years ago during the frustrating years of not having a Japanese accountant who spoke English. For several YEARS (!) it irked me that I could not communicate with the accountant I had - but looking at the maze of incomprehensible Japanese websites, I despaired of being able to find anyone.

Then one day I just decided: fix this thing.

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)

****

Yesterday was a Friday family tradition to eat breakfast at the Mullumbimby farmers' market.

Mullumbimby - as my regular readers know - is the counter cultural capital of Australia; a place where a lot of the residents don't realize the 60s are over. Bare feet and flairs are as common as nose rings and heavy rock.

Remember the musical "Hair"?

Well, it's still playing live in Mullumbimby.