Doucette the cat had “an accident” that night…

Just the other day my pain level went down to…acceptable??? And my spirits lifted…just like that. Well, other great stuff was happening in my life as well, but the cream puff of spirits lifting sure was the diminishing level of pain. Immediate reduction of stress. This is happening just in time, as I am supposed to go back to work shortly.  Doucette the cat umm…had an “accident” on the bed that night…elle a fait pipi…of course on purpose…so the next morning was spent doing laundry and making up the bed again. I wish she could just tell me what’s wrong but alas…sigh. I inhibited my usual reaction of getting upset quite nicely. No startle response. I just sighed.

a cream puff. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have managed to turn my mood around. Of course, having had five AT lessons in the span of eight days certainly helped turn me around. Three lessons with the usual suspect, and two lessons with two different teachers. I scheduled these lessons as an anti-having the blues prevention. Guess what? My strategy worked! And guess what? The usual suspect remarked that my ribs are moving much more than they used to. Too cool!

I was thinking about all the lovely things that happened on that first day of less pain. I had great conversations in person, via telephone, and by messaging with amazing people all day and all night long. Had a wonderful conversation with a cousin, and I realized that she understands oh so well.  Great talk with a neurologist friend who is totally thrilled that I am doing AT and, in fact, that I am going to continue my training at some point. On my part, I was thrilled to find that he is familiar with the Technique. I had so much great input from so many terrific, supportive people. I am very grateful to…friends near and afar, family, and yeah, la mauvaise Doucette the cat. Such great energy beaming my way!

Judith Leibowitz wrote “The aspect of the Alexander Technique I want to focus on is stress and how using the Technique can help to minimize the negative physical effects of stress. Use of the Alexander Technique will also release excess tension into a dynamic balance of tension in the body that is carried into activity.” This was the opening of an unpublished manuscript of hers…I guess it was from a paper presented in 1985…and it was published in the AmSAT Fall Journal of 2013, number 4. I happened to be reading this as my mood was lifting. “Well yeah” said I to myself. And I thought of my neurologist friend’s explanations of how working on the body can create new synapses, etcetera in the brain. He told me that Charles Sherrington was an oldie but goodie and long dead hahaha. I will have to confer with him on more up to date reading. He kind of lost me with his technical, scientific jargon, but, his message was crystal clear. I must inform myself and explore the neurological ramifications of the Technique.

I went home after the last of my series of lessons feeling pretty floaty. I was thinking that some champagne that evening would be grand. I thought I had a split in my fridge, but alas, I was wrong.

On a homeopathic pain/inflammation remedy note…arnica gel works great for me; comfrey root is banned in the USA.

Below is a photo of Doucette when she first came to live with me four and one half years ago. I am noticing how retro this photo is. A Filofax omg! No iPhone! How did I manage? Doucette had captured the orange pompom “mouse” hanging from her cat house. She was very attached to it for a long time. She used to take it with her wherever she went! Gratuitous photo? No way! I really appreciate her great use of self!

Doucette posing with her captured orange pompom mouse