Skype Lesson with Chi Tat Li, Hong Kong

For a year now I have been giving regular Alba Emoting lessons to Chi Tat Li in Hong Kong through Skype Video sessions.   Although learning Alba Emoting through computer video conferencing may not be best for everyone, Tat managed amazingly well learning this technique through the internet airwaves.  He had a keen sense of control with the patterns from the very beginning, and committed to this learning method quite seriously.  He practiced regularly between our sessions, and during each lesson he took detailed notes, and clarified the work by applying precision to the patterns.  I realize if we were working in person, and if he were interacting in a group with others, he could probably go even further with the work, and much faster.  However, even with the challenge of distance and video, within six months he managed to learn the patterns so well that he earned a CL1 certification.

To my knowledge, this is the first Alba Emoting certification earned through video conference lessons.  It was through Tat’s request that I embarked on this method of teaching Alba Emoting.  I now believe this is an excellent beginning for sharing Alba Emoting with people around the world, and I am already conducting Skype lessons with others.

After earning his CL1, Tat continued with more lessons, working to master the patterns, and apply them to acting monologues, singing songs, and through movement and activities.   He is a college student studying Communications and Theatre, and is a regular play director for university theatre competitions.   Since so much of Tat’s studies and activities are focused on communications with others, as Tat’s studies progressed into CL2 level work, we also addressed how to  recognize the Alba Emoting patterns in others.

A Scene from the Play Tat Directed

During the months of September through November, Tat was directing a long play for one of the biggest drama competitions between the Hong Kong universities, organized by the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  The competition consists of four plays from four university student organized drama societies, and  the judges are professional and well-known drama practitioners.

Tat felt very challenged by this project, not only due to the prestigious status of the competition, but the play was longer than he was used to directing, and the cast did not have a lot of acting experience.  During early rehearsals he realized the actors were not truly embodying their roles, often coming across stiff, and holding back from fully committing to the roles and interactions with others.   He recognized that in order to bring this production to a competitive level, he was going to have to do some acting teaching.  Having never taught acting before, and still in training as a director, he was not sure how to approach this with the cast.

When I worked with Dr. Susana Bloch, the founder of Alba Emoting, during my sabbatical in Chile, I learned ways that one can coach aspects of the patterns, without actually bringing someone through a formal Alba Emoting lesson.  With this approach, a person who is trained in the patterns, can watch a person in performance or activity and see when the breathing shifts patterns, or when the posture or muscle patterns in the face reveal mixes or lack connection with the pure emotion they are trying to convey.  Dr. Bloch would recommend coaching by simply telling actors to try different postural attitudes, or ask questions like, “What if you tried this moment with this facial aspect instead?  How do you feel?  Does your breathing change?”  Over the years, I have found this side coaching method worked incredibly well with those not trained in Alba Emoting, and served as a reminder to those who were trained.

Best Actress and Best Actor Award Winners

I shared this story with Tat, and encouraged him  to try this approach with his cast when he felt they were not coming across authentically, or fully embodying their roles.  I stressed that he could not give them Alba Emoting lessons, and should only coach through questions, and suggestions for the actor to try different postural attitudes and facial aspects as they rehearsed.  This form of coaching could help them recognize pathways to fully embodying the roles, or specific moments.

During a Skype session later in his rehearsal process, Tat told me he was using these coaching methods in some of his rehearsal exercises, as well as referring to the patterns when he encouraged the actors to embody their roles more, or to react to situations from moment to moment in the play.

Tat and Lead Actress

He reported that the cast members were surprised with how his coaching helped them realize when they were conveying body language that contradicted what they believed they were conveying.  An actor told him that he now realized his own nervousness about acting in front of an audience was keeping him from getting into any other emotion, besides fear.  Tat shared that another actor stated, “The postural attitudes and facial aspects of Alba Emoting alert us if we are doing the opposite, when we are trying to express a particular emotion.”

In a November Skype lesson Tat reported, “The competition is over, and we won the “the Best Play” award in the competition!”.

The photo above, showing a two-person scene, shows two actors who won Best Actor and Best Actress in the competition, in addition to the play winning Best Play.

The photo on the bottom right is of Tat with one of the leading actresses.

This story and these pictures are shared on the Breathxpress blog with permission from Chi Tat Li

While directing a Tennessee Williams one-act play festival, I decided to use side coaches in the rehearsal process for six short plays. The festival provided the perfect opportunity for the student actors to experience what it is like to utilize side coaches as a technique for bringing their scene scores into immediate action. Each short play had small casts of two or three characters, and side coaches could be actors from one of the other short plays.

In the play, Hello from Bertha, we had an actor who has trained in the Alba Emoting technique playing the lead role of Bertha, an aging and deathly ill prostitute who would not leave her room at the brothel, much to her fellow housemates’ frustration. Two other prostitutes keep entering Bertha’s room and try to convince her to leave, so they can make her room more profitable to the brothel.

The actor made the decision that Bertha was dying of syphilis, and after researching the symptoms of the disease and applying a physical approach to the role, incorporating the specific pains and behaviors of people in states of delirium, she was ready to add the layer of emotional tactics. The actor realized that with the character confined to a bed through most of the play, most of the tactics would be emotional. She also realized that the play was written with extremely quick shifts in emotional tone, climaxing to a point in the play where the character escapes into her delirious nostalgic memories of her long lost beau, Charlie.

In order to embody these emotional colors and tactics she scored her script using the Alba Emoting basic emotions. This was a wise decision for her as the actor, as well as for the depiction of this role considering (1) the emotional shifts happened very quickly with this character, so she could use the Alba Emoting technique as a quick and reliable embodiment method, and (2) it was important to recognize that a character is such an extreme stage of decline and desperation would probably express much of her emotional life in these primary emotional states. She also chose another student who studied Alba Emoting to be her side coach, so he would fully understand what he was calling out to her from the side-lines and be able to call continued corrective coaching if he noticed she was not fully embodying the emotional choice.

The side coaching of the basic emotions worked perfectly for this role. Her coach crouched down near the bed she was lying in and quietly, yet insistently, called out each emotion quickly as she shifted from one extreme to the next. As the actor approached the climax of the scene, her coach not only called out the basic emotions in her beats, but also coached her to go to higher levels of the emotion in order to reach and punctuate the arc of the play. It only took a couple rehearsals with this side coaching process for this actor to retain these dynamic shifts throughout this exhausting play. Eventually her side coach simply watched and took notes, and the two would confer after each run through so he could share any places she was forgetting to apply specific choices, and she would additionally make any changes in her scoring she felt might be better choices for the next rehearsal.

This process was mesmerizing to witness, and the final performance this actor produced had audiences riveted all the way to the end of this tour-de-force role!

If you are interested in learning Alba Emoting, click on the Workshop Tab on this site and learn about an upcoming workshop in July, 2011.

Response Reflexes and Possible Reactions

Inhale through the mouth quickly. Pull back everything: head, shoulders, feet, etc.  Attaching all of your posture to physical retreat.  Then hold, intensely, and watch your environment. 

The quick movement and intense hold, causes extreme muscle tension everywhere, head to toe.  With everything else moving backwards, few extensions of your body opt to move forward.  The hands may fly out and up, to balance and protect with palms out, a deep instinct to ward off attack.  The chin tucks down slightly, and the neck muscles tighten, as a gut feeling inside warns to protect the vulnerable neck.  The eyes immediately sense the need to watch and study the influence of this response, causing them to move forward, practically bulging out of the head.  Finally, the hold and watch pattern causes you to hold your breath.  If you opt to hold this for a while, a quick release of the air tension blows out of the mouth, only to gasp in more air for the next hold duration.

This is a fear response, deeply rooted in the limbic system, when encountering the unknown, the unannounced, or the unsuspected.  The impulse to pull away, protect, and evaluate is a natural response to the unknown.  We see this behavior in the animal kingdom when we witness most any animal caught off guard.  The ears go back, wings flap to launch the bird in retreat, claws scrape the ground as the animal scrambles back to evaluate, and eyes bulge out as the animal freezes in an important decisive moment before fight, or flight.  

The response is quick, instinctive and could be described as a reflex, an automatic, unthinking, involuntary response to a stimulus.  Scientific studies have also referred to this as the Startle Reflex. The Latin meaning of the words reflex and response, are “to bend back” and “to answer.”  These are quick, instinctive responses.  Human babies display pure fear responses as they discover the world around them.  Later as humans mature, the response might become far more subtle and internalized, after a lifetime of social conditioning. Some adults might simply display a low, barely perceptible inhale of air, a hold, and body tension that pulls the individual’s posture backward while the eyes shift around the environment. 

If this fear is more reflexive and automatic, what happens when our thinking catches up after these reflexes?  We react.  With our thoughts more actively engaged, evaluation of the situation is quickly calculated, and now we act again, as the Latin meaning of “re” suggests, or act anew. Paul Ekman, facial expression expert and author of fourteen books, including Emotions Revealed, describes the moment when a person is in the reflexive emotional state and evaluating the situation as the Refractory Period. After this point, we have choices, if we are conscious of the response, and then aware of the options in reactions available to us. 

With the fear response filling our lungs with air during quick gulping inhales, and body tension building up from pulling back and tighten up, often the reaction that follows is an instinctive release of this tension. Medical dictionary use of the word, reaction, is often referred to “an action caused by the resistance to another action, or a return to the opposite physical condition.“  In small children we see this all the time when a child is startled, or falls.  There is the brief moment of silence as the child holds his breath and quickly evaluates the situation.  After that split second of hold, a release or purge is followed, often either a cry or a laugh.  Both of these emotional reactions involve a great exhale of air out of the mouth, and a release of body tension.  Watch this YouTube video of a young child responding to his mother blowing her nose, and then reacting after his evaluation of the situation.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9oxmRT2YWw

The brief evaluative moment, or Refractory Period, during the response and the reaction plays an important role, influencing the emotional content of the reaction.  If we perceive the stimulus that ignited the fear as a valid fearful situation, we will continue to hold onto the fear in our systems, either engaging a full retreat or flight mode, or maintaining low levels of tension, being wary, watchful, and stressed.  In truly fearful situations, this is an absolutely life sustaining reaction.  However, often the fear response is simply due to being surprised, and the reaction can release the need to hold onto the stress inducing stimulus. 

The fear response with chronic attachments to the fear condition can cause tonic states of stress in our lives.  Many people have created acronyms to explain our habit of holding onto this fear.  A popular acronym is FEAR = False Expectations Appearing Real.  When we reach that brief moment of evaluation and accept the fear stimulus as a validation of a truly fearful situation, the fear response stays in our systems.  However, when we engage the analytical brain in the brief evaluative moment, and choose to react by releasing, perhaps the acronyms could be reinterpreted as these others found by groups wanting to reinterpret their own fear response, “Forget Everything And Relax, or Face Everything And Rejoice.” Many people laugh after they are startled, as a natural response for this need to release, as well as the want to be joyous.  At other times an individual might cry as a release, particularly if the threat has passed, and a person needs to express the grief imagined at possible loss and pain from that threat.  Then there are others who might react in rage, turning the situation into a fight, or feeling the need to protect the threatened environment. 

The external environment will also influence the reaction.  In the video of the baby responding to his mother blowing her nose, we don’t see how the mother is influencing the baby’s reaction.  One can surmise that she is most likely influencing that joyous reaction, as many of us might do when we see a baby startled, by smiling and encouraging the baby that all is well, no threat present.  When a child falls and sees a parent running to the child in their own fear response, or wearing a worried expression on their faces, they influence that child’s reaction to the situation.  If the child is not hurt, and is simply looking around to learn if the situation is one where he should laugh or cry as his release, all evidence is quickly collected from inside and out, and then an emotional reaction engages. 

The Scream by Edvard Munch

We have many choices in our reactions to the unknown, unexpected, and unannounced.  Even if previous life habits and influences have created patterns in our reactions, they can be reconditioned over time and practice to produce a different reaction.  Like the individual who studies the martial arts, training over and over again to condition a different response to being attacked, or encountering the unexpected.  We can learn to recondition our reactions as well, and start anew with newly developed reactions.

To learn more about these options, the study of Alba Emoting can provide you with tools for raising your awareness of responses and reactions, and then provide you with tools to respond anew.  Also – an excellent book to read about the subject  of emotions and the many choices we have in our lives for writing your own new script of actions and reactions is Emotional Awareness: A Conversation Between The Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman, PH.D.

Skype has opened up new doors for teaching and learning Alba Emoting!  And what an incredible door to be opened!  My first teaching and learning exchange using Skype video conferencing was between Hong Kong, China + Asheville, NC, USA! 

Many thanks to university student, Li Chi Tat, who contacted me to see how he might learn Alba Emoting if he was unable to come to my workshop this summer. I mentioned to him that I have been meaning to explore the use of Skype for this purpose, and he was very willing to set up Skype video conferencing on his laptop computer and commence private sessions between our two countries. 

We managed the time zones (11 hours difference)with me call him during my early morning hours, in order to catch him in the late evening.  We have had two private lessons, and are preparing for our third this morning.  Tat has already been introduced to five patterns, and I will introduce the last two later this morning.  Then we will discuss a plan for how we might continue studying the patterns, in order to fully embody them, voice them, and explore their applications to his work.  We have progressed quite quickly in these private sessions, and it helps that Tat is an excellent student.  He learns the techniques very quickly, exhibiting calm and contemplative control of his breathing and muscles, easily welcoming the patterns into his system, and letting them go through neutral breath techniques.   

Learning Alba Emoting through video conferencing may not be for everyone, and my intention is to approach anyone interested in pursuing this method of sharing Alba Emoting with careful consultation, and clear gradual steps to see if this is a good fit for that individual’s learning style and needs.  Ultimately, the most ideal place to learn Alba Emoting is in-person, and preferably in a group where people can learn how emotional expression and these patterns manifest differently in others, as well as in communication interactions.  However, Skype video conferencing may be an excellent technique for introducing the work to some, and for others who have attended workshops in the past, to continue refining and mastering the techniques. 

An exciting new doorway has been opened, with connections possible in many locations throughout the world!  Thank you Tat, for your willingness to explore this with me, and for helping me open a doorway for others who might be interested in the future. 

To learn more about private and small group sessions possible either in-person, or via Skype video conferencing, go to the Customized Lessons tab on this blog site.

Jessica M. Beck

Jessica Beck, CL3 Certified in Alba Emoting, recently published an excellent article on Alba Emoting in Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, Volume I, Issue 2, Sept 2010, Routledge Press.  The article, titled, Alba Emoting and emotional melody: surfing the emotional wave in Cachagua, Chile, focuses on the views of emotion in Western performance training and how Alba Emoting is among the first of the emotion techniques for actors to explore the connection between breathing and emotion in a scientific manner.

“Although the connection between breathing and emotion is nothing new, Bloch and her research team are among the first to explore this relationship in the context of Western science, articulating phenomena that many performers have been intuitively embodying for centuries.”

She provides an overview of Alba Emoting, where each of the seven patterns are described in detail. She also includes an important viewpoint of the “emotional controversy,” presenting varying theories and opinions on the use of emotion for the actor, including references to Denis Diderot, Benoit-Constant Coquelin, Constantine Stanislavsky, Jerzy Grotowski, Richard Hornby, and Lee Strasberg.

The article continues with her investigation in the use of Alba Emoting as a director and an actor.  She provides stories of her experiences in training with various Alba Emoting instructors, including her work with Dr. Bloch in Cachagua, Chile.  She also provides examples of using Alba Emoting to coach actors while directing and serving as a director’s consultant on productions in London, England.

As she concludes the article, she shares new developments in Alba Emoting vocabulary, including my approach of numbering and lettering the emotive patterns (see blog entry “Living in the As or Bs”). She documents her use of this approach while directing actors in a research project for her dissertation developments.  She also reports on the various approaches to teaching Alba Emoting by certified practitioners, and how Alba Emoting comfortably pairs with other techniques like the Feldenkrais Method, the Meisner Technique, Strasberg’s method, Chekhov’s Psychological Gesture, and with the Grotowskian tradition.

To purchase the article as an instant download go to http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a927141791~frm=titlelink

Living in the As or Bs? - Written by Laura Facciponti Bond 

Laura Facciponti Bond

Two years ago I created a number and letter labeling system for the Alba Emoting patterns.  This was designed as an instructional tool for teaching the emotional patterns without providing the subjective and leading emotional word up front in the lesson, allowing the individual learning the pattern to provide her/his own subjective feelings for what the pattern evoked.

Dr. Susana Bloch - Creator of the Alba Emoting Technique

Dr. Bloch, the creator of Alba Emoting, defines emotion as “A complex functional state of the entire organism, which implies simultaneously physiological activities, expressive behavior, and an inner experience.”  The Alba Emoting effector patterns provide the physiological and the expressive aspects of behavior, through breath patterns and postural and facial muscle manipulations.  An individual can learn to control and manipulate these two aspects of emotion in measurable degrees.   

Dr. Bloch has always maintained that the individual must offer the inner experience, which is highly subjective, challenging to control or manipulate, and cannot be calibrated or measured.  With thousands of words available in the English dictionary for emotions, and recognizing that each of the Alba Emoting patterns, designed to evoke basic emotions, have varying expressive levels depending on the intensity of the breath and degrees of muscular intensity and movement, it is no wonder that providing one emotional word like fear or joy would limit the individual’s subjective response to the pattern.   For example, a person exploring the Alba Emoting pattern traditionally called Joy, and what I have labeled 3a, might feel merry, amused, cheerful, delighted, jubilant, effervescent, festive, happy, jovial, ecstatic, or elated.  An individual learning the Fear pattern, or 2b, might feel alarmed, cowardly, stunned, surprised, distrusting, shocked, insecure, terrified, panicked, or dumfounded.

Labeling the patterns with numbers and letters opened up the ability to call up and describe a pattern without attaching the limitation of a singular emotional word to a pattern that is meant to evoke an abundance of varying feelings and experiences within a larger basic emotional category. 

How were the labels devised?  I have always found it intriguing that the patterns naturally fall within 3 sets of cognate breathing pairs; 2 nose breathing, 2 mouth breathing, and 2 nose/mouth combination breathing patterns. I also recognized that within these cognate pairs that there was one uplifting emotion (which I labeled as A-emotions) and one negative or oppressive emotion (or B-emotions); Tender Love/Anger, Sexual Love/Fear, Joy/Sadness.  Finally, understanding the theory that basic emotions are considered the core ingredient to all other emotional expressions humans can experience as they mature, with basics mixing into all other emotions (much like primary colors mix into the multitude of colors we experience in the world) I knew that the labels of the emotions should start with the numbers 1,2,3.  This number labeling metaphor helps to express the theory that all other emotions beyond these first three sets launch into the infinite possibilities of human expression, similar to the infinity of our numbers.  The seventh Alba Emoting pattern, Neutral Breath, is considered the pattern that is the closest a human can get to an emotionless state.  For this pattern  I assigned “0” (zero) to signify this essence of being emotionless, and numerically below the 1,2, and 3 patterns.

After two years of using these labels as the initial phase of teaching Alba Emoting (eventually  revealing  emotional words for each pattern once an individual has learned and interpreted all aspects of the patterns) I have found that most of my students prefer to continue using the number/letter labels as they refer to the patterns.  Some express delight in the personal freedom of allowing their own interpretation of how the pattern feels to them. Many have a great deal of fun with a new “secret coding system” for talking about emotion and behavior.  There have been many times where I came up to a group of “Alba Emoters” and heard them looking at a picture or watching a commercial and commenting, “Did you see his 1b!” or “Ah – now that is some great 1a!” And still others enjoy exploring the simple symbolism of “living in the As, as opposed to living in the Bs.”  It has become a popular saying upon leaving a workshop, or sending a salutation to another Alba Emoting practitioner, “Have an A-Day!”  Or “Don’t let the Bs get you down!”

I have also found that by grouping these patterns in these cognate breathing pairs that it helps a person who is a habitual nose breather, or mouth breather realize that minor shifts of tension, posture, and facial aspects can easily shift them from an A-state to a B-state, or vice-versa.  A recent workshop participant was able to make some interesting observations about the common postural attitude patterns in the three cognate Alba Emoting pairs by recognizing that the  1-patterns were “giving emotions,” the 2-patterns were “receiving emotions,” and the 3-patterns were “being emotions.”   She made a very astute observation, for the postural attitudes of 1a and 1b (Tender Love & Anger) are indeed focused forward and the eye contact is placed on someone or something.  The patterns of 2a and 2b (Sexual Love, in the receptive mode & Fear) both have postural attitudes of leaning back, as if receiving either something pleasant or shocking.  And finally, 3a and 3b (Joy & Sadness) are more inner connected postural attitudes, either allowing the inner feeling to simply radiate out, or holding an inner feeling in and down.

I believe the simplicity of these pattern labels helps to make Alba Emoting even more accessible, invites investigation and individual interpretation, and provides a simple language or code that could possibly help us all simplify unnecessarily complicated communication environments.

So, with these patterns in mind — I hope you have many A-filled days, and experience minor doses of the B-emotions! 

To learn more about Alba Emoting, watch this short video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8xgdgqRsUk

Part II of Best-Laid Plans

Continued from the story, The Best-Laid Plans (first posted 9/13) 

Laura Bond

When people learn Alba Emoting and realize how much they can use this technique to transform their emotional lives, they often follow this recognition with the questions, “How much can I now control my emotions?  Can I keep myself from having a bad day, or lashing out at someone in anger?  Can I use it to cure my anxiety attacks?”  My answer has always been, “To a point. The location of that point depends on the individual and the given circumstances causing the emotional state.”  I would then follow with examples to illustrate.  I would explain that a person might have intricate life experiences that develop strong beliefs or thoughts that are entangled in this emotional state.  These beliefs may keep overriding the somatic work of Alba Emoting that the individual is applying in order to clear this emotion.  Another situation might be where individuals are in an environment where they are challenged daily with a situation that counters the desirable state they wish to induce as an alternative option.  An individual who is in an abusive relationship could be working daily on trying to obtain courage, or serenity within their whole self, yet the abusive environment overrides the individual work applied and the victim of abuse needs to shift into the life-saving fight or flight mode.  Another situation is where a person may have a physical condition that is limiting their emotive range.  This individual must work within the boundaries of that condition and/or try to gradually use the technique as a tool to move beyond these limitations.  As my story of the Best-Laid Plans continues as an example of personal somatic challenge, I realized I found myself in this latter example–a system locking up in a state of fear and anxiety at having vertigo 24 hours a day for months.  Interesting how an example from the instructor manifested into a personal reality, one which I hope I can now look upon as a time of personal growth and an opportunity to gain more clarity on the potential within us all to change our circumstances, no matter how challenging they feel.

Alba Students Exploring the Fear Pattern

I remembered the wise words of my minister, “Only good will come from this.”  I must admit, these words first troubled me at the time of receipt, for I was having great difficulty in finding the good in living day and night with vertigo spins and dizzy spells.  I had given up most everything I loved doing for myself, from performing and singing weekly with an inspirational band that I adored, to vacations, travel, and even taking walks or gardening.  On top of this I was getting ready to teach another Alba Emoting workshop in Asheville (at least I didn’t have to worry about flying in a plane) and an intense summer class for UNCA.  My mind could only dwell on this thought, “Solve this, quickly!” I managed to get on my feet and teach intensively for four weeks, rushing off to different specialists in-between classes and workshops, and doing whatever these doctors told me to do, in hopes it would clear the condition and help me regain my balance.  Some of these remedies had me in a neck brace, sleeping propped up at an extreme angle, twisted into maneuvers that brought me into vertigo and held me there until the condition cleared, and recommendations for copious drugs — most of them I was too nervous to take because I wanted my head clear for teaching.

As the weeks progressed I convinced myself that embracing the good, looking for the positives in the experience was a far better choice than wallowing in misery.  I remembered my own words to my students, “Alba Emoting can be used to manage your daily emotions, to a point.”  I decided to use my own condition as a personal laboratory for examining and testing just how much more I could learn about the intricate levels of possible change in the soma, and to find where my personal point of effectual positive change was within these challenging circumstances. 

In addition to teaching Alba Emoting, I have also been writing a book about a new approach to acting that I have titled The TEAM Approach.  TEAM is an acronym that stands for Thought + Emotion + Action = Manifestation.  The essence of this approach is to help actors recognize that all parts of ourselves must be engaged and aligned with the character in order to produce a holistic performance.  I knew this as an effective acting lesson, and yet I have always recognized that this acronym represented an important combination for all behavioral changes, or even life changes for that matter.  When our thoughts align with our emotions and actions we are far more effective and accurate communicators with others, as well as within ourselves. I knew that with this challenging state I was experiencing, I would need to engage and align all aspects of myself with a positive balanced outcome in order to make things shift.

I employed everything I knew as an Alba Emoting educator.  I knew to breathe deeply, to apply desirable emotive patterns throughout the day, and to adjust my posture as much as I could towards more healthy physical attitudes.  It was challenging.  Each head tilt brought on more dizzy spells, or at times I would engage so willingly into a desirable emotional state that a strong movement in one direction brought a vertigo attack that could launch me into a full tail spin down to the floor.  To help me maintain the mind/body connection and sustain a positive attitude, I placed signs all over the house with positive affirmations written in large bold letters.  These signs were in mirrors, doorways, at the foot of the bed, and on kitchen cabinets.  I would put them anywhere I thought I might need them.  Should I turn my head suddenly and feel dizzy–I would be looking right at words that would remind me of the feelings and thoughts I wanted to express, instead of fear or sadness.  Within a couple of weeks of concentrated effort and continued assistance from a physical therapist, who introduced physical maneuvers that are meant to clear vertigo, I was able to return to regular daily teaching, directing plays, and even return to the gym for light workouts.  Although minor spells still were occurring, they were reduced considerably and I was starting to see how I could combine these supportive theories to bring me back to the joyous state I was feeling just one month earlier.

Story continues….   

 

 

Engagement Photo - May 2010

The Best-Laid Plans

~written by Laura Facciponti Bond

Standing in the doorway of a new chapter in my life I decided to take a brief hiatus from my blog entries.  I planned to return to my blog in July, but as the saying goes, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”  Back when this decision was made, I was getting married in early June and recognized it was important to trim down my normally hectic schedule to the bare necessities.  My intended, George, and I were planning our wedding together as a unique celebration centered around honoring our family and closest friends as the influential community guiding and supporting our union. Since George and I met creating music for the New Thought church, the Center for Spiritual Living, intricate plans were well under way for multiple studio recording sessions to prepare music for the ceremony and represent our shared history of meeting while creating such inspirational music.  Meanwhile travel plans for all our out-of-town guests needed to be made, along with plans for a our exciting week-long honeymoon to the Bahamas.

I knew at the time it was important to pay close attention to my own emotional balance.  I was marrying the love my life, my best friend, and soul mate.  I wanted it be joyous, perfect, and to reflect the incredible gratitude George and I felt for what we had found and were committing to in this public forum.  I wanted to savor everything and not fall into the depths of the stereotypical SOB (Stressed Out Bride) syndrome. Luckily, George and I tend to be very open communicators and detailed list makers.  So we adopted a plan to keep the process in perspective with regular check-ins, mini celebrations for each accomplished goal, and constant (often daily) affirmations of our love and attraction for each other.  Even though large amounts of money were being spent that would at times cause a brief moment of light-headedness and panic, and the to-do-lists and errands seemed endless and un-manageable, our plan for keeping an even keel, and a through line of emotive joy, passion, and tenderness prevailed through it all.  The SOB rarely reared her ugly head, and was quickly shooed away easily due to our dedication to this emotional through-line of tenderness, passion, and joy for the process.

Our engagement pictures taken in May reflected these emotions.  Our eyes glowed, the smiles were easily authentic for the camera, heads tilted with tenderness, and we often threw our bodies back into joyous laughter for our photographer, reflecting the true exhilaration we felt together in this process. These emotions remained consistent and a dominant presence through pre-wedding, wedding, honeymoon, and during the week after our return from the Bahamas.

Then, late one night on June 22nd an element was introduced that would shift my emotional state so strongly, with such profound force it has turned into one of my biggest body learning lessons of my life.  That evening I was overcome by an extreme case of vertigo.  Attempting to get up from the bed that night, the room spun and I collapsed.  All attempts to move in any direction caused wildly dizzying vertigo spins and the simple act of sitting up and walking to the bathroom took concerted effort and concentration to keep me on my feet.  Although vertigo was not new to me, having experienced dizziness and vertigo in the past, I had never experienced it this bad.  And my first reaction was, “No! Not now!”  That panic of timing was well justified.  I was not only a newly-wed who wanted to enjoy this new chapter in my life, but I was supposed to fly to Montreal in four days to teach a week-long workshop on Alba Emoting.  Unfortunately, my worst fears soon became a reality, I not only had to cancel my trip to Montreal, but the vertigo condition set up house in my system for months.  For the rest of June, July, August, and the beginning of September I would face one of the biggest physical and emotional challenges of my life.  I could barely walk across the house, certainly could not drive, and was now land-locked  in a disabling condition that turned out to be almost as mysterious to the copious specialists and doctors I saw as it was to me. 

As a somatic educator of emotion studies, I could not help but notice how it immediately changed my emotional life.  Overnight, this physical condition shifted my emotionally blissful state into a body of fear and sadness.  I felt my entire body lock up into fear.  My neck muscles stiffened, shoulders blocked, and my back braced with each vertigo attack.  Some of the many remedies recommended had me in a neck brace, sleeping propped up for days on end, and when I could sleep and allow my unconscious state to let down its guard, I would awaken constantly during the night if I moved my head or body in a certain direction that would cause another vertigo spin — once again locking me into a fear position, and the only release–anxiety and sadness.  When I wasn’t dizzy or on guard for the dizziness, my exhausted body would simply collapse from days and hours of bracing, into a state of sadness, which I knew from all my work over the years in emotion studies was motivated largely by the need to purge this extreme state of tension held night and day for such a long time. 

Exampe of pure FEAR/Surprise in a child

During the days my eyes had to look out into the world, moving independently of a head that was connected to a locked neck (a strong indicator and signal to the brain of FEAR) since the slightest movement  of my head caused greater spinning.  At times I would find myself nearly blacking out, in a crumpled pile on the floor if I happened to get carried away with my movements and reach joyously up to hug my husband, pick up my little dog for a quick cuddle, or simply put a glass away on a high shelf, tilting my head upward.  The simplest daily head movements could evoke dramatic results that not only were dangerous (if in a car, or holding sharp objects) but easily scared and upset those around me who could not help me either.  Not only were my days starting to fill with trepidation about doing the simplest actions, but I soon began to envy even general emotional expressions in life that I could not do any more: to throw my head back in laughter, to tilt my head in tenderness, to soften my posture with sensuality.  All seemed un-approachable, unattainable now in this state. 

In desperation for answers and help,  I sought not only many different doctors, but the assistance of my ministers at our New Thought church. The philosophy of New Thought is essentially mind-over-matter or “change your mind and you can change your life.”  I knew, with this life challenge, I would need to employ everything I knew from somatic education, Alba Emoting, the scientific health profession, to spirituality in order to aid my recovery. 

While many doctors offered rounds of remedies that had varying degrees of change to my challenged system, my minister offered this sage advice, “Only good will come from this.”  As I pondered her words during what seemed to be one the darkest times of my physical health, I decided to embrace this advice.  I chose to work everything I knew with my emotional and somatic training, from the health industry and into the spiritual realm in order to rise above this challenge and to find the good.  I chose to learn from this lesson, to embrace this challenge as a positive life-changing event, and yet reclaim a healthy balanced life in the process!

(story to be continued)

 

The Power of Tender Love by Laura Facciponti

Early scientific studies of Alba Emoting showed that when subjects were in the Tender Love pattern the heart rate dropped below the resting cardiac rate.  All other emotion patterns raised the heart rate, and even the neutral breath pattern brought the heart rate back to the resting rate. 

Six years ago, as an early practitioner of Alba Emoting,  this research knowledge of the pattern’s effects on the heart rate was on the surface of my mind as my father came home from heart surgery.   I remember walking into my parents’ kitchen a few days after his release from the hospital.   I saw my father sitting at the table with an automatic heart rate monitor strapped to his arm as my mother bustled about the kitchen gathering supplies for his new pill-taking and heart monitoring routine.  He sat grimacing over the machine as he pushed the button and the machine whirred into action.  The machine beeped the results and he frowned even harder.  I asked him what he was trying to do.  He said, “I’m trying to bring my heart rate down.  The doctor said it should be in a certain range and I am supposed to check it three times a day.  It’s too high.” 

I sat down across from him, “Can I show you something that I think will help you?  It is an Alba Emoting pattern that has been scientifically proven to lower the heart rate.”  He was intrigued, and so was my mother, who quickly sat down at the table as well.  I proceeded to show both my mother and my father how to do the Tender Love pattern.  Within minutes I instructed the two to face each other and gaze at each other with the Tender Love breathing pattern, adopting the soft smile and tilted head.  I gently reached over and clicked on the blood pressure machine that my father was still wearing, instructing them to continue with the pattern.  The machine whirred on as their Tenderness flowed between them.  The machine beeped and revealed a significantly lowered heart rate.   My father was thrilled.  My mother was relieved.  I was excited to see Alba Emoting work so quickly in helping my father with a real life situation.  And the Tender Love just kept flowing in the kitchen for hours!

Example of Tender Love Pattern with Mother and Son

Many years later I remembered this event as I watched my fiancé, George, sit in a surgical recovery room last month, connected to a heart rate monitor.  I stood next to his gurney as the surgical nurse instructed him to close his eyes, exhale deeply, and think pleasant thoughts – while she watched his heart rate monitor.  I watched George take big breaths, heaving his high chest with each inhale, closing his eyes and frowning with concentration as he gave a long exhale–creating what I knew to be a mixture of sadness and anxiety.  I thought to myself, “This can’t be good for him as a recovery method,” and wondered what the nurse’s goal was.  So I asked her, “Are you trying to get his heart rate down?”  She said, “Yes.  We can’t release him until it reaches a safer level.”  That was all I needed to hear. 

 As the nurse bustled about the room, I quietly looked at George and asked, “Want to  try a breathing pattern with me that I believe will bring your heart rate down?”  George looked at me and nodded with agreement.  I quietly instructed him to look at me and just breathe along with me – like me.  First starting with deep breathing, so he would move out of his high chest breathing, then we adopted the Tender Love pattern and the smile with tilted head.  Slowly the nurse drifted over, curious.  She pressed the heart monitor button for a final read, and as George and I shared the Tender Love pattern together we could hear the heart monitor beeping down, down, down!  The nurse smiled, “You can go.”  As I exited the surgical area with George I made a mental note, “Create a special workshop on  Alba Emoting for surgical recovery nurses, or at least a mini workshop on the power of Tender Love.”

Looking at these adorable puppies can easily trigger Tender Love

How can you create Tender Love for yourself?  Until you have the opportunity to learn Alba Emoting, the power of Tender Love is something you often feel when you look at that loved one with that soft smile of unconditional loving adoration. One of the purest ways to feel Tender Love, without having instruction on how to duplicate it via Alba Emoting, is the feeling one might have when cuddling with a dog/puppy, cat/kitten, baby, or basking in a favorite place.  Although we would like to think that we can find that from our love relationships all the time, people-to-people interactions can be very complex emotionally and do offer Tender Love occasions along with mixed emotions and messages.  The pet and place interactions mentioned earlier generally won’t create additional mixed feelings or reactions of stress.  Although, it is important to choose the “Tender Love stimulant” that works best for you.  For example, for some people holding a baby or a cat can cause all kinds of anxiety, while in others it creates pure Tender Love.  

Studies have shown that ederly adults who form good relationships with pets have lower blood pressure

Many studies have shown that when people develop loving relationships with pets, their health improves – particularly their heart rates drop.  In an article, Does Pet Ownership Reduce Your Risk of Heart Disease? Aaron Honori Katcher, MD states, “When people speak to people, blood pressure almost always rises. Sometimes the rises are quite large, bringing the subject’s blood pressure into the hypertensive range. In contrast, when people speak to pets, blood pressure remains the same and can even fall below the level recorded when the subject is resting quietly.”   The secret ingredient here is Tender Love!

To read more about studies on pets for better health go to: http://www.petsfortheelderly.org/research.html#1

The Look of Love

(submitted by Milt Simon after reading…. Smile for the Camera)

What is the ‘look of love’?  How do we recognize it?  How does it feel to give it? How does it feel to receive it?

The look of love is the facial expression reflecting the soul of a satisfied person.  It is not a look that asks “what do you think of me, do you approve?” rather it is a look that says “I am whole, sound and complete, how can I serve you?”

The ‘hunger’ that we often feel for SOMETHING; the gnawing  feeling of ‘incompleteness’ and the undercurrent of emotional stress felt where we are ‘alone’ can show up in our smile.  Is this our look of love?

Alba Emoting Students practicing in the Mirror

When I believe that I am not getting what I need or deserve from you, it leads to a sense of resentment.  I have a sense that I deserve something I am not getting.  I either blame you or blame myself and feel that I have failed.  If I were not lacking I could get the approval, attention, love or companionship you are holding back (that WOULD complete me).

So, HOW DO I GET YOU TO LOVE ME? I smile at you!  If I really feel like I have to ‘buy’ or ‘perform’ for your love the smile on my face belies my true feelings.  My own smile reflects my MIXED FEELINGS.   If I were able to really see my smile in the mirror it might explain this mystery to me.

When I smile I want to ATTRACT you.  What if when I smile I am showing Anger, Fear, Resentment or other emotions mixed into my attractive smile?  Is this my intent?  Can I see how a smile is not always a smile, and doesn’t always truly attract like a smile?

Now what do I do?  If my smile really expresses some anxiety, I want to hide.  How do I proceed?

Alba Emoting Students Practicing Tenderness

I would like my smile to really be a reflection of love, an invitation to conversation and expression of trust.  If my smile shows anxiety, fear or distrust, how do I come to more embody and express true integrity and wholeness? 

From an Ontological perspective, one must develop an ability to manage anxiety, achieve a sense of satisfaction and purpose, and develop practices of confidence and inner-calm.  When my inner world is centered on my own strengths and purpose, then YOU become someone I can serve, be curious about, interact with or just ignore if I choose to. 

Does my smile invite closeness?  Do I engender trust?  Do I have the ability to coordinate positive and constructive actions with others?  What is the tension level in my home, workplace or relationships with friends and strangers? When ‘life happens’ and I MEET the various events in my life, with WHAT ATTITUDE or FACE do I meet them?  How are my explanations to myself reflected in my reactions, emotions moods and FACE?  Do I become self-blaming?  Do I down-shift into moodiness, sadness, or the old tapes of inadequacy, helplessness or blame?

The Self-Judgment process is reflexive.  How I judge myself will directly relate to how I judge others.  When I learn to ‘interrupt’ self-judgment, I create new possibilities and expanded choice in relationships, coordination of actions, and emotional intimacy.

MY Look of Love is the one I see in the mirror.  Can I see my own fear or anxiety?  Am I really as open and accepting as I think I am?  Does my face and smile INVITE trust, intimacy or non-defensive conversation?  When I learn that I can create practices of self-acceptance, calming and centering that will allow me to recognize when anxiety is knocking at the door I begin to allow more intimacy and self-acceptance.   I can breathe, walk, meditate, or do actions that take the focus off of my survival and my self-consuming feelings. 

Milt Simon

If I cannot be friendly to myself, there will be no friendship with life.  “The dream goes according to its interpretation” and my life goes with the interpretations I give it.  It’s time to see the look of love in the mirror!

~ Milt Simon is an Ontological Coach living in Los Angeles, CA.  He has studied Alba Emoting and applies Alba Emoting theory as a somatic method for emotional awareness along with many other Ontological Coaching tools in his practice.  If you would like to contact him to learn more about his work he can be reached at msimon317@aol.com

Laura and Milt are working together to create a special workshop in Los Angeles, CA on March 10th, 2010.  See the information in the ad below.