Robbin L Marcus
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Weeds Lead, Flowers Follow?

4/24/2019

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It’s gardening time in the Southern part of the USA. Just pre-mosquitos, humidity still relatively low, temperatures in the 70s and low 80s. Perfection time for all things plant-related.  We’ve had a ton of rain in Atlanta this season, so weeding is easier than it will be next month. Thus, I have spent the better part of the last couple of weeks looking down at the ground. I know all too well that the weeds are a powerful stimulus for me. It’s very easy to get my eyes and literally my head sucked down to the ground as I finagle around trying to find those last bits of root. There really is some truth to the statement that if it comes out of the ground easily, it’s a desirable plant - if you can’t budge it, it’s a weed.
 
If the ground is too wet to sit or kneel on comfortably I’ve got to stand up and bend over. Or, sometimes I’m on my way to the car and a weed jumps out at me. When that happens, I usually bend over without giving it a whole lot of thought and yank the offender out of the garden bed. Weeding from a standing position changes everything, and usually not for the better.
 
Recently I’ve been consciously putting some of my attention out there on the Alexander Technique concept of “Head lead, body follow.” I find when I pay attention to my use according to this model, I’m less sore the next day in my neck, shoulders and low back. You may ask, “What is head lead, body follow?” Unlike a lot of Alexander Technique jargon, this one means exactly what it says. Our heads weigh about ten pounds. They are heavy! The way we tilt our heads is the way the rest of the body follows behind, because the head sits on top of the spine, which connects the entire torso from head to pelvis. Try it yourself. Walk around, and then tilt your head over to the left or the right. What happens? Tilt your head backwards. Do you want to walk that way, instead? Now stop walking. Tilt your head forward like you are looking for a weed. What happens?
 
Here’s another thing to think about – when you tried this experiment, what part of your head always went first in the direction you asked it to go? In Alexander Technique, the answer is the crown of your head. That’s on the top of your head – where the fontanel is on a baby’s head.   Put a finger there and repeat your experiment. See how the crown of the head actually goes first? That’s because the crown of the head is just above the top of your spine. Sure, there’s a brain in the way – but – imagine that because the spine is pointing up to that part of your head, the crown is leading you. 

Picture
Maybe it's easier to see in the screen shot above, when the skeleton is on all fours? Check out the entire meme here

​I find that for me, it’s easy to feel the crown of my head leading when I’m playing around tilting my head in various directions. It’s less easy when I’m upright and walking. I used to think that my eyes led me everywhere. (I think I used to walk like it was my nose, or my chin leading my forward. Look around – you’ll see people moving like this.) Thanks to my Alexander training, I can imagine that my head is a unified whole – having a back as well as a front. I can imagine my whole head, happily riding on top of my spine, getting somewhere all at the same time when I use the crown of my head to get me there. 
 
How does this help me with weeding? I can choose to look down from the place where my head balances on top of my spine, instead of bringing my eyes closer to the ground by drooping my head.  I can squat when I weed, which puts me in the optimal position for a good head/neck relationship. If I do this instead of bending at the waist, all of me will say “thank you” the next day. Some days I can’t do a full squat, so getting into Monkey and at least bending my knees to fold over my thighs helps a lot.
 
If you garden, try some of these ideas next time you’re out there, and then tell me what you think!


The peonies are blooming, and my husband Dave Marcus took these fabulous photos with his new camera. Enjoy!
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Having A Good Slump

4/16/2019

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Here’s a few photos from the Country Dance and Song Society National Board meeting last week in Massachusetts. I got up at 3:00 am to get there on time. I thought I might write a blog post on the plane, but I slept instead...
​I’m in the upper right corner of the “board at work” photo. Do you notice my lack of laptop? The third and fourth photos tell you what’s going on right now....
​
I owe you an apology and a blog post or two...
Which I promise will be published as soon as:
  • My Mac returns from having a brand new battery installed, hopefully by the weekend.
  • I restore the machine from my back up. (Fingers crossed!)
Believe me, this long adventure has already given me lots to write about, but typing and formatting on my iPad are no fun. Thanks for sticking with me.


All the best,


Robbin
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Jargon-busting with Robbin - "End Gaining"

4/2/2019

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I went to Austin, Texas this past weekend for a fantastic workshop on business writing. I’ve been looking forward to it for months, hooked into going the minute the wonderful facilitator promised that in this particular class she’d be giving us “The Rules.” I like rules. Always have, always will. Rules give us a framework – a structure, a box (if you will) from which we can eventually escape. You can’t improvise in music or anything else if you don’t know the rules and how to follow them. I was really excited to get her writing rules, because I knew they'd be incredibly helpful for all the blogging I've been doing lately. 
 
Our class started promptly at 9:00 am. The facilitator outlined the morning and said The Rules would be coming shortly before lunch. Sigh. I came all this way and now I had to wait until mid-morning to get what I wanted? Just at the moment of having that thought, I started laughing. Oh, my, goodness.  What kind of terrible Alexander student was I being right now?
Beautiful wildflowers I saw while walking in Austin, Texas - Bluebonnets and primroses
​
I was perfectly demonstrating the trap defined in the Alexander Technique as “end gaining.” When I say this to students, most people ask me if I meant “end gaming,” but no. The words directly from FM Alexander are “End Gaining.” When we end gain, we want to be at the finish line, getting the thing we want or need, right now. Never mind all that stuff that comes along in the process in the middle. 
 
If I really planned to end gain my way through this workshop, I was going to miss an entire early morning of useful and important stuff. I knew I was perfectly capable of mentally hurrying on and trying to second guess what “The Rules” were going to be, rather than paying attention to what was being said in each moment. On the other hand, I’d payed a nice sum to be in this present moment and hear everything that was said, so I might as well take advantage of what was right in front of me.
 
I decided to laugh at myself a little more, then pause, then let go of the need to have those rules right now. And guess what happened? In those moments of listening, of hearing something completely new that preceded the giving of the rules, I had a Revelation. The Capital R Revelation that made the entire workshop worth it for me. If I’d been end gaining instead of listening, I might have missed it. 
 
People end gain for all sorts of reasons. I love it when a brand-new student comes into my studio and asks “How many lessons is this going to take until I get it?” That’s end gaining at its finest. I remember once walking down the hall to make some copies in the teacher’s room. I was so busy imagining myself standing in front of the machine, pushing buttons in my mind, that I completely missed the walk down the hall. That’s end gaining. Ever drive somewhere and realize you had no idea how you got there? That’s end gaining, too. 
 
Educators talk a lot about being “goal focused” vs “process oriented” in the classroom. Being goal focused is teaching for the test, or if you’re a music teacher like me, focusing all your assessment on a concert performance. End gaining is what you’re forced to do because it’s all about the outcome. Being process oriented means that it’s less about the final outcome and more about the journey of getting there. Teaching for the love of learning. Feeling free to go off on tangents because the class finds them interesting. You get to the goal and it takes whatever time it takes to get there.  It’s the antithesis of end gaining, and the deepest kind of learning. The kind where you have revelations.
 
Over the years I’ve learned that inhibition is the best antidote to end gaining. When I pause, allow the present moment back into my attention, let go of the need to be somewhere else doing something else and really pay attention, I can allow myself to slow down and breathe. Learning to enjoy the process makes all of life richer.
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    Robbin Marcus

    A new 21 weekday blog series on Slow Forward - gentleness with myself -  will begin on Monday, February 5, 2023
    ​Sign up on the 2/2/2023 post to receive it daily in your email.
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    An occasional post from me, about stuff that interests me.

    2023 blog series:
    Slow Forward 

    2020 blog series:
    1) Processing - Experience, Thought, Action
    ​2) Diving for Light - Shedding 
    light on a dark time

    2019 blog series: 
    Exploring the Power of Habit 

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