A TEACHER’S JOURNAL

12 things I thought were worth sharing about teaching this week

1. I’ve heard someone say from the Buddhist tradition that environment is 60% of healing. So, when traveling, find a truly healing environment to stay in. For me the whole place, but particularly the bed is critical. This trip virtually every bed I slept in was too hard, giving me backpain to resolve each morning.

2. Virtually everyone “gets it” immediately when a truth is stated clearly and with kindness. In this class, we all got – the importance of slowing down - of engaging the soft tissues and nervous system in a step-by-step well-boundaried manner rather than just going deep too fast. Sensitivity is inversely proportional to effort.

3. Don’t be too hard on yourself (paralleling working too hard on the client). You are responsible for doing the best you can, not for the client’s results.

4. Work where they’re not. When we help the client release a place related to, but not the site of their complaint itself, then when we go to the painful place the nervous system will be more open to receive.

5. Practice organizing your mind in your touch. If we return again and again mindfully to the place we’re touching, a day of Deep Massage or Zero Balancing can have the effect of a whole day of meditation. Stay present.

6. You know so much more than your conscious mind can be aware of. Stay open to the deeper knowledge that may float up for you and for your clients from their unconscious.

7. “When people are themselves surprised by what they say, that’s when they are really making some progress.” - Sigmund Freud
The same holds true for their being surprised by what they feel.

8. Social learning – we think we learn as individuals, but when we acknowledge the group we form in the workshop and the power of collective attention and mutual kindness, it greatly amplifies the learning opportunities. No one succeeds alone. Perhaps no one learns alone.

9. Krishnamurti said if six people would totally cooperate the world would be instantly transformed. In each class I am inspired by that aspiration.

10. At the end of every workshop I feel a “hedonic” experience – joy and contentment at what we did, what we learned and felt in that learning community. Plus I feel a certain sadness and frustration – that it’s “over”, I won’t see these people for a while, sometimes ever again.

11. Often I feel I’m best as a teacher and some of the sadness comes from that satisfying role evaporating and the experience of being my “good old self” comes back. How to turn each workshop into a learning that lasts, just like an impactful massage….good question.

12. Perhaps this links up indeed with the last step of the “fulcrums” we explore - “disconnect cleanly and clearly”. Each time we disconnect in a healthy way it allows the experience to become an enriching part of our life, deepening the well of unconscious and conscious experience.

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