Last week's Chi Gong lesson started out like any other: opening the various parts of our bodies to let the energy flow, concentrating on the palms of our hands, moving energy to our navels. But halfway through the lesson, our teacher introduced some new routines which were quite spectacular, compared to what we're used to. We did something that resembled pulling a bow, moving away energy with one hand, while pulling back the other. Another exercise involved standing on one leg and pushing energy from one hand to the other.

This was great, the movements were very fluid and graceful; at a certain moment, almost felt like Karate Kid. Including his reckless attitude: I was so excited that I forgot all about inhibition and ended up losing my balance.

Since some of the exercises are also really useful for singing, I asked our teacher whether I could do some of them at home. He was very strict about this: no Chi Gong without supervision of a good teacher. In my current state, I'd probably do more harm than good. Hmm...sounds familiar :-)

As a technical writer, I work with computers most of the time and deadlines are usually very tight. Last week, I had deadlines for two major projects, so things were very hectic. I usually manage to avoid stressy situations, but last week, it was hard to escape them. Result: a stiff right shoulder and arm. First time in months that I let it come this far, foei!

Luckily, my AT teacher was back from her Christmass recess, so I had a lesson again. Paid a lot of attention to the shoulder and arm:
- My arm is not an isolated part of my body; rather than focussing on the stiffness, try to make sure that both primary control and secondary directions are in place.
- Don't overcompensate for pushing my head forwards by pulling it back; let the head undo itself.
- Search for a straight channel through the back, through which directions can easily flow; explore my heels and the back in general. Spine is in the centre of the body, not at the back.
- Allow room in my lower back; if I fixate there, this has an immediate negative effect on my chest.
- Out of the body is three-dimensional; I'm not restricted to moving in just the horizontal or vertical plane.

I'm under a lot of stress right now because of work, and that's when the meaning of faulty sensory awareness becomes so clear to me:
- I feel hungry, even though I've eaten enough (and healthy).
- I feel tired, even after more than 8 hours of sleep.
- I enjoy daydreaming, even though I know it's bad for me and staying focussed is going to do much more good in the end.

Ever since I started Alexander lessons, I've learnt that emotions are very smart things indeed: they know how to disguise themselves as physical manifestations. AT gave me a 'logical me' that tells me that, because it's logically not possible to feel hungry with a full stomach, the sensation of hunger must be caused by (and solved by) something else.

AT also gave me the means to do that too: the peace and quiet to stop and investigate what's really going on, plus the guts to face anything nasty that I may discover on the way.