Hello everyone,
Another warm welcome to new subscribers, and a warm hello to existing subscribers. I hope you are all well wherever you are.
In this issue of Expanding Awareness I talk about how Alexander Technique turned me from a trembling ball of stage fright into a confident public speaker. I also talk a little about the outline of my upcoming course and some key dates for your diary if you’re interested in it.
I hope you enjoy!
AT benefit: public speaking
As I mentioned in Expanding Awareness #6, I’m trying to pin down some of the benefits I’ve experienced in my life from Alexander Technique. This plays two roles.
First, by understanding and learning how to communicate what Alexander Technique has done for me, it becomes easier for me to conceptualise and talk about what Alexander Technique is. The first question that anyone will have upon hearing of it is bound to be “what’s that?” and the second is “and why should I care?”. Clarifying the benefits can help answer both of these questions.
Second, because I am soon going to have something to sell, and that means conveying that I have something to offer that people may want to buy. This brings with it all kinds of uncomfortable feelings (I am not yet used to asking for money), and yet it is the way of things.
I have probably spent in excess of £20k on online courses and various trainings and in fact I am usually very excited to part with that cash — if I can see myself benefiting from what I’m paying for. I feel like Alexander Technique is something that needs to be out there in the world in a big way, so I need to be able to communicate why that is.
You 500 are the believers and early adopters, and I’m hugely grateful for you joining me on this journey. But I am also thinking of the next 10,000 who may find encounter this work and or even take the course.
So let’s talk about one of the most tangible benefits I’ve seen: dramatically improved public speaking ability. I wrote a Twitter thread on this if you prefer that format, but this is a nice space to expand in more developed prose.
I used to be absolutely terrified of public speaking or of ‘performing’ in any way. I would get huge stage fright, feel intensely uncomfortable, visibly shake and would avoid it as best I could.
Late last year I spoke at a conference in Korea in front of 300 senior energy industry professionals from around the world. I didn't have a script, I was horribly jet-lagged and I had dislocated (and then relocated) my left knee the day before. The talk went well and I enjoyed myself — you can read about this, and my ‘ultimate guide to public speaking’ here.
I now really enjoy public speaking. I still get nervous, but it doesn’t control me. I’m able to access an authenticity and playfulness on stage in a way that I never would have thought that I could have. And I attribute a huge amount of that to Alexander Technique.
Before I learned Alexander Technique, I wasn’t in control of my own awareness. It could be pushed and pulled around, dragging me along with it. When there was anxiety, there was only anxiety. When there was stage fright, there was no space for anything else. I tried to control, interfere or otherwise coordinate myself while being defined by these unpleasant things.
Now I am able to expand my awareness far beyond these things. Not to suppress or ignore them, but to place them in the context of a much bigger space. From there I get to choose how much I engage or don’t engage with the fear, how much I respond or don’t respond to the anxiety.
In Korea, in the moments as I went up on stage, I was aware of my exhaustion. I was aware of the intense throbbing in my left knee. I was aware of the enormous room, and of the simultaneous translators at the back. Each of those 'stimuli' — the thoughts, the pain, the fears — had the potential to hijack me.
But I didn't let them. I stayed 'in the room'. I expanded my awareness. I connected with the audience. I lived in that precious space between stimulus and response. The pain and tiredness were there, but they weren't the entirety of my experience. I had choice.
It’s in that space that something magical happens. Something else shows up that is simultaneously not me, but is also much more me than I could ever hope to ‘do’ myself. That’s where the playfulness really comes from.
I really, genuinely can’t fully express how transformational that moment felt, as I looked back on the timid, younger version of myself and where he had come, and knowing that it was no fluke occasion — that I now have the power to bring that capacity to bear every time I ever go on stage again.
Incidentally, everything I’m doing online — Twitter, the newsletters, making a course, making friends — I also attribute a lot of that to Alexander Technique, but that’s a discussion for another time.
Course outline
I’ve got myself into quite a good routine of developing the course outline a little further every morning before work. This is where I am now (the colours are just my progress in developing each section).
What I’ve learned from 30 Zoom calls is that this sequence works: it’s important to reveal information and new subjective experiences in the right order and with the appropriate level of context and theory.
This outline reflects an enhanced version of my calls that covers all the different intricacies and different games and tricks I use. I never have enough time on one 45-60 minute call to go through everything — it’s always adapted based on what comes up — so this course will be everything that I have used on all calls and some more besides, to give students the broadest possible ways into understanding.
If you’re curious about following on with my ‘building out loud’ process, you can follow this Twitter thread, which I update after each work session.
Pre-launch sequence
I’ve taken the week of 14 September off work, which is when I plan to do the bulk of the writing and recording of videos. I’ll be launching a pre-sale of 50 spaces for $50 each before starting this week of focused content creation.
Why? Two reasons:
There are c. 500 of you on this list, and if only three of you buy into the pre-sale, then I might need to re-evaluate whether this whole enterprise is a good idea! Selling or not selling 50 spaces would both be data I can use to re-orient before sinking too much time and investment.
The first version will be a beta version, a little rough around the edges. I will ask the first 50 (who I am calling “The Believers”) to accept that things may be a little janky and to talk to each other (there’ll be a forum and maybe office hours) and give me feedback on what works and what doesn’t. This is also why the $50 price tag for lifetime access is a significant discount on the $150-$200 I think I’ll get to after a few iterations.
Anyway, I plan to open the pre-launch on September 5th to this list and to launch the course itself to the 50 on September 19th. There’ll then be several weeks of collecting feedback and making changes before I’ll launch an enhanced version for wider release.
I recognise that sharing this level of behind the scenes detail may be unusual, but it’s part of who I am and how I work. It’s important to me that you see my thought processes and come with me on this journey.
That’s all for now — see you next week!
Thanks for reading this far! If anything here resonated with you then please hit reply and let me know.
By the way, I also write articles on my website and run another newsletter called Thinking Out Loud. That’s where I write about stuff like building in public, Total Work, solarpunk, carbon removal, sense-making, building communities, creating positive narratives for the future, identity and various other things. I invite you to check them out.