What We Learned in Class this week 2

On the first class of each semester, I introduce Alexander’s discovery as an expansion of the body from the center out. This is a way to prevent focusing on any one part of the body as THE mechanism for the primary movement. It immediately brings you to the idea that the primary movement is a whole mind/body body/mind movement. The students leave with the assignment to think about and allow themselves to expand. We are clear that this is an allowance, not pushing oneself into expansion..

Students always return with far more than I could ever expect…

In the report from the class, students commented on ease, on the difficulty of remembering, and on noticing how often they were contracting inward.

What I didn’t expect was when students began commenting on how uncomfortable they felt in public spaces when they allowed themselves to expand. It was as if they were “taking space away from others” or worried that they would seem “intimidating” or draw too much attention to themselves. They were as surprised to discover this as I was to hear it.

We spent the remainder of class learning that we are entitled to the space that our body occupies, in a healthy way. We are allowed to occupy all the spaces of our body, and are safer and more welcoming to others when we fill in all the spaces of ourselves.

We also spent a good deal of time learning about presence that pushes people away, presence that pulls people in, and presence that creates an empathic space of talking and listening (second circle work). We learned how intention can shape our presence in the spaces we occupy and how our presence affects others.

It was beautiful!