Saturday, June 16, 2012

MAC-Week 3, Response to Tracy Anderson's Blog


Tracy Anderson, I will comment on Chapter 7 with you on being present without resistance. The author states presence without resistance frees you and allows other pathways to begin to appear, presenting other possibilities. I get caught up sometimes in worrying about how things should be rather than accepting how they are.

I have been practicing living in the now for a few years after listening to Eckhart Tolle when he did those podcasts with Oprah. I think I will listen to them again because it was freeing to be able to just accept and be. Life took on a new perspective and I was much more able to handle the now and not resist.

This has helped me immensely in my classroom this year. I had a tough group of students and I was placed in an environment that I wasn’t highly qualified for and it was sad, frustrating, at times maddening and I felt terrible that I couldn’t give the class everything that I was capable of because I had never taught the subjects I was trying to teach.

If it hadn’t have been for those audio books and podcasts, I wouldn’t have survived as well as I did. I would just take a breath, and say this too shall pass, accept where you are, be in the moment and find something about the situation that is positive and work from there.

That worked and I learned to pace myself differently and let go of mind traps. I have become a better teacher because of this year. I did ask for a transfer. My mind isn’t that strong.
That was my crisis and it really felt like where am I in my life now? Facing the unexpected that truly confuses and disappoints and as you stated, I will now follow my own connection to the possibility.

Image Source: Microsoft Office Clipart; MP900438964


Tracy Anderson


Metal sculpture titled” Spreading Peace on Butterfly at a Time” by David Kracov

In this countdown to month 12 in the EMDT program, I indulged myself with an audiobook version of The Art of Possibility.  My thinking was, at this stage of the game I really need to multi-task.  This is something I really do not favor, as it forces my attentions in far too many directions.  Like the conductor exclaimed in chapter 5, “They need me everywhere!”  Good grief, I hope that part of my life and thinking has passed.  I have no aspirations that are that grandiose.

Now that it seems deadlines are coming as if induced by some force beyond my control and I really need a way to say I have had some introduction to the assigned chapters.  Today, I actually managed to listen, for the second time, to chapters while walking 2.0 miles around the local neighborhood track.  The weather was cooperating, a pleasant 80 degree and not a cloud in sight.  I put in my ear buds and commenced my lap count whilst listening to the narration of possibilities.

My disclaimer, my comments are in no way a comprehensive study of the Zanders.  Just my own little quips and recollections of points that made an impact, or, better still, made me laugh.

Chapter 5 offered its own bit of salve. We all know tyrants and professional bullies. If you find yourself in the company of such a person, plan your exit. No point in posturing yourself against them. I do like the white paper practice Zander described.  It’s very much like the feedback we provide at the end of each course.  No harm, no foul, just a decent way to offer comments from a personal perspective.

Fast forward to chapter 7, on being present without resistance.  Now, let me just say that I have a problem with being present with resistance or just plain tuned out. It has taken years for me to take my interests or fears  (calculating self) out of the equation to lessen my resistance to a situation, good or bad. By developing that muscle of resistance I have found myself in some painful situations.  My piano teacher often asks, “Are you present today?”  Funny how that resistance comes through in any endeavor.  Thankfully, of late, I have been fully present.  Which leads into the next chapter, Giving Way to Passion.  This is where I need some remedial help!  Where am I holding back?  I am familiar with notion of the long line but I am far too familiar with the disorientation expressed by Amanda Burr.   How many times have I felt that I don’t know where I am in my life?  Let a crisis (bar line) present itself and all but for the Grace, there I go.  Now my more mature and cooler head has begun to prevail.  I think I must be taking my lead from someone close to me who shared that he hates the bar line in music because musicians react to it as if it were a stop sign.  It is time to follow the long line and my own connection to possibility.

Photo retrieved from http://www.spiritofspider.com/2012/01/spreading-peace-one-butterfly-at-a-time-metal-sculptures-by-david-kracov/

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