Whether you love it or hate it or somewhere in between, mental discipline is an important concept and foundation of our work in the Alexander Technique. If only it were as popular as the World Cup (8:04) and focused upon at least as much! What is our role as teachers in defining what this (mental discipline) means? How does it form part of our purpose and intention in teaching? Just a few of the questions that came up in this week’s episode. 

Warning for Alexander beginners: may contain unexplained jargon and slightly technical ideas!

11:10: ‘’When you collect marine animals there are certain flatworms so delicate that they are almost impossible to capture whole, for they break and tatter under the touch. You must let them ooze and crawl of their own will onto a knife blade and then lift them gently into your bottle of sea water. And perhaps that might be the way to…’’
	-Human Movement Structure and Function Workbook, (2nd edition), p.vi Introductory Remarks referencing the preface of Cannery Row, John Steinbeck.  

*****************************************************************
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are the podcasters’ own, and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of any organisation or other individual.

Is 'Mental Discipline' a Good Term To Use in Teaching?

In the third module of the ITM teacher training program, Principles of Personal Development (PPD), we read about and learn that ‘feelings aren’t facts’. This is true and a powerful idea to understand in the development of oneself. However, does this in part mean that feelings don't have any role to play in this work? 

Warning for Alexander beginners: may contain unexplained jargon and slightly technical ideas!

•	3:48: A danger is how we interpret feelings. Also, on a physiologic level we now have more information than FMA did with regards to how we ‘interpret’ data and that different parts of our system handle the incoming, processing and output. Information that gets to cerebral cortex is accurate until gets to sensory association area: there is a task of interpretation that occurs somewhere in the brain – where things like beliefs, rules come in. The true raw data turns into something else. Then taking this into consideration including belief structure, desires and planning and once plan gets to motor association cortex - out it goes, just how you planned it. Functions are separated by a sulcus but also by time and in area.
 
•	6:30: We don't use feelings in this work for guidance in our movement because physiologically as we know, they can't as feelings come after movement. We can be guided by something that hasn’t happened yet. What is possible is that the feeling (post movement) might give you a target. i.e. something feels good and you want to do it again and a protocol could be developed that generates one movement, one feeling. Wanting to recreate a feeling is just a target you are aiming for. It is not guidance, it is a destination.  All the planning is going to end up into a strategy which turns into what you tell yourself to do, and then you do it, precisely as you tell yourself to do it.

*****************************************************************
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are the podcasters’ own, and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of any organisation or other individual.

What role do feelings have with respect to the study of thinking in relation to movement?

Warning for Alexander beginners: may contain unexplained jargon and slightly technical ideas!

Karen’s Hypotheses:

•4:11 Hypothesis 1: interchanging use and manner of use is simply stylistic to vary his word usage. Conclusion: unlikely! 
•5:16 Hypothesis 2: use is a value judgement i.e. variations on good or bad while ‘manner of use’ is non-judgement/neutral. Conclusion: as both have many and varied adjectives attached, this hypothesis went out the window! 
•6:24 Hypothesis 3: use is to do with what and manner of use is to do with how. 
Conclusion: a step forwards leading to Hypothesis 4 (see below)
•9:35 Alexander’s definition of use: ‘’I wish to make it clear that when I employ the word use it is not in that limited sense in the use of any specific part…but in a much wider and comprehensive sense…’’ 
		- FM Alexander, Use of the Self, (IRDEAT edition), p.381 footnote 101
•11:52 Hypothesis 4: the approach taken in carrying out tasks and the role the person plays in what might be available. Conclusion: Currently a potentially viable explanation and requires analysis against text …TBC.

*****************************************************************
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are the podcasters’ own, and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of any organisation or other individual.

Is 'use' the same thing as 'manner of use'?

I don’t think that anyone learning or studying and/or teaching this work would disagree that observation skills are important. This episode begins looking out i.e. people watching! and winds its way to more introspection and the mental side of things. Perhaps a combination is an ideal way to spend any down-time over the festive holidays!

Warning for Alexander beginners: may contain unexplained jargon and slightly technical ideas!

IMAGE: People watching at Waterloo Station! 

18:20: Alexander’s first observations: 
‘’To this end I decided to make use of a mirror and observe the manner of my “doing” both in ordinary speaking and reciting, hoping that this would enable me to distinguish the difference, if any, between them, and it seemed better to begin by watching myself during the simpler act of ordinary speaking, in order to have something to go by when I came to watch myself during the more exacting act of reciting.’’
-FM Alexander, Use of the Self, (IRDEAT edition), p.413 
*****************************************************************
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are the podcasters’ own, and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of any organisation or other individual.

How Important Are Observation Skills?

Permission to fail is liberating. This is a point of view discussed in this episode and although now touted by most success educationalists, in most schooling 'being right' still rules. However, the joy of real learning which comes from letting go of having to be right, is worth the sacrifice - at least when one is ready. A big thank you to Diana Bailey for agreeing to be our first guest on Tech Talk Tuesday! 

3:30 ‘’Would you rather be perfect or continually improving?’’ – Don Weed (DW), ITM Founder and Head of Training during Summer Workshop in Darmstadt, Germany.

10:05 ‘’The more precision, the more power.’’ – DW during teacher training weekend in Bristol.

11:25 ‘’I question everything’’ – DW during trainers training weekend in Bristol.

Warning for Alexander beginners: may contain unexplained jargon and slightly technical ideas!
*****************************************************************
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are the podcasters’ own, and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of any organisation or other individual.

Letting Go of Being Right

In this episode, I repeat the words ‘reasoning processes’ (I lost count!) as if that will somehow convince or influence both Karen and myself to have a common vision on this! We don’t always agree and while I’m seeking universal application of the concept, Karen in her calm and patient manner, keeps things more focused and contained. Makes for a lively exchange! 

Warning for Alexander beginners: may contain unexplained jargon and slightly technical ideas!

•	1:30: ‘’Trust in my reasoning processes will bring you safely to your end.’’ – FM Alexander, Use of the Self (IRDEAT edition)Chapter I: Evolution of a Technique p 380 
•	2:15: Genuine Trust – 
Donald L. Weed, D.C. What You Think Is What You Get (3rd Edition) Chapter 14, p 131
•	13:40: First question that started FM Alexander’s self-investigation: ‘’Is it not fair, then, ‘’, I asked him, ‘’to conclude that it was something I was doing that evening in using my voice that was the cause of the trouble?’’ 
– FM Alexander, Use of the Self (IRDEAT edition) Chapter 1: Evolution of a Technique p 370

*****************************************************************
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are the podcasters’ own, and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of any organisation or other individual.

How important and relevant is Genuine Trust in the Alexander Technique?

A discussion on the value and importance of a certain line and use of questioning in lesson interactions and self-study of the Alexander Technique.  

Warning for Alexander beginners: may contain unexplained jargon and slightly technical ideas!

•	8:15: …’’the first Law of the Alexander Technique is that people are willing to do anything to get better as long as they don’t have to change.’’
	-Don Weed, What You Think Is What You Get (3rd Edition), Chapter 1, p. 3. 
  
*****************************************************************
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are the podcasters’ own, and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of any organisation or other individual.

The Importance of 'maybe' and 'what if?'; and what if your student dismisses 'what if'

In this episode Cathy and Karen look back over their year-long podcast adventure, and reflect on what they learned from the experiment.

Warning for Alexander beginners: may contain unexplained jargon and slightly technical ideas!

TECHNICAL ISSUES

You will need:-
1.  a means of recording yourself (or selves) speaking that produces an mp3 file
2.  a subscription to a podcast hosting site
3.  a means of promoting your latest podcast

We used:-
1.  Recordings were done on my laptop using a program called Audacity.  It’s free to download and very sophisticated, however it does take a bit of time and effort to learn how to use it.  I was already familiar with it, so for us it was the obvious option.  There are lots of much simpler programs out there, and most phones will have a recording app built in.  The other advantage of Audacity was that it gave us the option to edit the recording.  Mostly all I did was lower the volume on us laughing.  You wouldn’t believe how loudly that came across in comparison to speech.  It also meant we could record a standard introduction and conclusion, and just add them on to each episode.  One more point on recording; we also used a USB microphone, a Snowball Blue, which gave a vastly better sound quality.  Laptop microphones are notoriously bad, so it’s probably worth investing in a better microphone.

2.  We researched the reviews of podcast hosting sites, then set up subscriptions to three of them so we could try them out.  In the end we went with Soundcloud because it gave us what we needed, wasn’t stupidly expensive, and had the easiest website to use.  Some sites are free up to a point, they generally charge based on how many hours of podcast you have uploaded, plus various other features they will try and sell you.  You will need to weigh up things like:-
•	how much podcast time you want, 
•	how long you want old episodes be available
•	what size of audience you are aiming for (tens or tens of thousands), 
•	do you want a restricted audience or a totally open audience
•	do you want to turn comments on/off, or curate individual comments
•	how sophisticated do you want the listener statistics 
•	do you want it to interface with your own website
•	how much money you are prepared to spend
If you already have your own website, it may have available an add-on feature to host podcasts.  Ours didn’t.

3.  We kept the distribution REALLY simple.  Initially we posted the URL link on the various ITM Facebook groups and the TA forum, later on just the TA forum, plus we each had an email list of our own students.  Some hosting sites will send the new podcast automatically to their subscribers, but that means your listeners have to subscribe!  Some also provide an RSS feed to link up with other major platforms like spotify, itunes, googleplay, and alexa.  We never did suss out how it all worked, but since we were targeting a very small and select audience we wouldn’t have used those platforms anyway.  A lot will depend on whether your intended market are already regular podcast listeners.  

Image Credit (with permission): Karen's teaching room bulletin board.

What Did We Like, What Did We Learn?

Karen Evans is a ’99 with a teaching practice in Ashby de la Zouch in the Midlands.  In addition to this podcast project she has a long-standing Alexander blog aimed primarily at beginners.  There are over a hundred short posts for you to check out at www.ashbyalexandertchnique.co.uk/blog.
Cathy Aicardi ('03) graduated as a teacher of the ITM Alexander Technique in 2007, and completed a further four years of study in the ITM's first trainers' course.  Cathy is on a mission to share this work with groups by helping them to realize their potential and maximize their freedom and enjoyment of life.