by Diana
For me, growing up in England, August has always been the holiday month. There was never any school in August. They were long weeks of summer, visiting grandparents in the Lake District, and birthday celebrations for my brother. I was still working in universities when both my children were born, so in a sense the rhythm of that academic year has never left me. I went from school terms to university terms to having school-aged children, the first one of whom is now starting university herself. So August has always been a somewhat rarefied time for me.
August is also the time for the ITM UK summer workshop. It has become an annual commitment. Does this spoil my experience of these special, rerefied Augusts? Not at all. On the contrary, it enhances that sense of exceptional things happening every summer.
I write this freshly returned from our annual UK gathering, held at the beautiful Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester. It is the ninth time I have attended this workshop since 2011. There have been 3 years I have been unable to attend: two years due to the disruption caused by the covid-19 pandemic, and one other year when it simply wasn’t possible. This year represented an eagerly-awaited post-pandemic return. It was also the first workshop since the sad loss of ITM’s founder, Don Weed.
We were all keen to see whether the work we do could stand up to a number of tests: would the long disruption of the pandemic prove to be deleterious? Would the enforced separation of our community affect the way we work together? Would we survive the loss of our founder, mentor and most senior teacher? It is a remarkable tribute – to those of us continuing Alexander’s work, to our founder Don Weed, and most importantly to the work itself – that we not only adapted to all those challenges, we outshone our previous efforts.
This may sound immodest. However it merely continues a tradition that I have become familiar with, one that I talked to Don about many times: every summer workshop I attend is the best one ever. Every single time. So where did I start with the summer workshop? What happened back in 2011 that took me to Cirencester, to spend 5 days with a group of people whom I had never met before, whom I knew nothing about, and whose work was a mystery to me?
My brother discovered ITM in 2007. He became a trainee on the 2008 training course. He was so enthusiastic about this work. He sent me brochures every year for the Cirencester workshop. I was pleased for him, but I didn’t understand what he was doing or why I should be interested. One year he called me. He had a proposition for me to consider: he thought I should do the ITM training course. He made a compelling case, but I couldn’t decide because I still didn’t understand what the Alexander Technique was really about. So I said: this year I will go to summer school. That way I could find out what this stuff was about, and consider what the idea of training with ITM really meant.
It got to August. I was having a really tough time. I was responsible for caring for someone with complex medical needs, I was exhausted, my sleep was constantly disrupted, I was depressed, and the absolute last thing I wanted to do was spend 5 days making conversation with a bunch of strangers. But I had made a promise, so I ploughed on with meeting my commitment. One of my clearest memories of that year is arriving early at the campus, sitting on a wall waiting for registration for the workshop to open, and thinking about how I would rather do anything else other than walk through those doors.
Well, I did walk through the doors. And I found a group of welcoming, friendly, fascinating and fascinated people. We gathered as a group. We started with a shared meal – the welcome barbecue – and then we filed into the hall for the introductory class. This class consisted of a lecture introducing the basic ideas of Alexander’s work, and a set of lessons: mostly people who’d never had lessons before, where we could start to see the principles put into action. And I got it. I understood why my brother was so excited. I listened to Don Weed explaining the first ideas of this work: how Alexander had a problem that no-one could help with, how he went about solving his own problem, how when it comes to our voluntary movements there was a causal relationship between how we think and how we move, how all human activity involves movement, how the quality of our thinking and therefore our movement affects our experience of life, and how it is possible to use just as much effort as we need and no more.
What would your life be like if in everything you did you only used just as much effort as was necessary and no more?
Don Weed
And Don asked the question: What would your life be like, if in everything you did, you used just enough effort, and no more? Think about it for yourself. What would your life really be like? If you could think clearly about all your choices? If you didn’t have to experience wasting your energy? If you could construct a rational plan of action to achieve whatever you wanted? And if you could go about all of this while experiencing the joy of freedom and ease of motion?
Well, I was convinced. The thought I came away with that evening was “If you could live like this, why wouldn’t you want to?” I saw the principles put into practice over the following day of classes. By the end of day two I had decided to sign up for the training course. I experienced the benefits of the work immediately. Before arriving in Cirencester I had been so drained that it was a challenge even to empty the dishwasher. And then, with no intervention other than the ideas of Mr. Alexander, and the teaching of the ITM teachers, I would get back to my family after class full of energy and enthusiasm and happiness, and have plenty of energy to cook a meal, clean the kitchen, and spend an evening in their company.
I am endlessly thankful for that experience. My study of Alexander’s work, via the framework of ITM training, has only ever become deeper, more exciting, and more joyful as I have progressed from student to trainee to teacher. The experience of an ITM summer workshop is unique. I cannot recommend it highly enough, and I hope to see you there next year.
Wessex Alexander Technique 