The combination of asthma plus bronchitis is not fun. And then when followed up by pleurisy well…sigh…breathing becomes really painful. But I am happy to report, that since I’ve been taking Alexander Technique lessons, and especially since I’ve been training to become an Alexander Technique teacher myself, my bouts of this stuff happening to me occur with less frequency and with less intensity. But, have to say, at the moment, I am so tired! Wishing for my own homemade chicken soup (the best) but being way too wiped out to make any.
My chicken soup beginning to cook…
After having been shut in for five days, I finally made it out, and the cold assaulted me. I was so fragile I could barely stand up. I felt that I was walking in slow motion. I had had to cancel every appointment I had scheduled. Freed up my calendar, so to speak, in order to stay in bed. Couldn’t go to work; couldn’t go to training. Couldn’t practice flute. I have to be pretty wiped out to miss work and Alexander Technique teacher training! That first sortie out was to a training class…I was not scheduled for work that day so I didn’t have to choose. I still cannot practice. I do have a ways to go before this thing is over.
Oh that class was so wonderful!!! It was the usual scenario. It consisted of: a long turn…chair table chair, a directed activity, a discussion of the reading…the end of FM Alexander’s The Use of the Self, hands on: monkey with hands on table and then hands on real shoulders, a discussion of the Alexander Technique in general…this is ongoing… I cannot say that I was feeling refreshed, but, wow was it ever great to be in class again. It was luxurious. I was so grateful that I could breathe easier than I had been at the beginning of this illness…even if doing so with pain! I was so grateful that I could be there!
I am realizing that my sensory perception has improved. I know right away if my spine is coming down instead of lengthening when getting up from a chair. I feel all too well when I am gripping in the legs. I am assured that I am doing these less than I used to. I do have a long way to go. I’ll just keep plugging away.
The more I get into Alexander Teacher training, the more difficulty I have in describing succinctly what the Technique is. For me it is mystically life changing. Mystical because it is a mystery on how such a pragmatic thing can change every aspect of my being. I have to explore this thing that is changing my life in such an extraordinary way…to the max.
I feel that I am very lucky right now. I am in the right place at the right time…in my native city, in this particular training course, at this particular moment in time!
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