Today I could try to write a thing for my website about the state of my soul. No, I mean the state of my project.
Having made it somewhat clear to myself that I want to write a book, this month has been largely about putting in place a system for writing that helps me avoid distraction and get traction.
I’ve been putting a lot of time and effort into developing ways to write on paper, first with pens, then with a typewriter, then with a new computer that is stripped down so that it only takes input (no screen), which has then got me into trying to mess with printers, to get the screen-free writing onto paper.
I haven’t quite landed on my final writing set up—in fact I wonder if working on paper is part of me being distracted from the writing itself—but I have made significant progress. And it’s all part of me wrestling with the question of how to approach my own compulsive behaviors. That’s one of the questions I want to explore in the book: How to approach my own compulsive behaviors?
Re-wiring to lessen my compulsions is one reason why it’s important it’s a book I’m working on, because many of my compulsive habits are enmeshed with attention paid to screens. This isn’t something that Feldenkrais ever talked about because screens weren’t a big deal in his time? But screens really influence my life, and that’s something I want to re-wire about myself.
Questions right now:
One
How do I approach my own compulsive behaviors?
Two
How do I, a human being alive in 2026, become a really good ATM teacher? Some aspect of my answer, so far, is about writing. But I have the sense that maybe this book is a step in a direction of eventually not needing or wanting to write as much, since my bigger objective for studying the Esalen materials is to learn them well enough to deliver them unaided by notes.
Three
How do we keep the living, human aspect of the Feldenkrais tradition alive? How do I rewire myself, lessen my compulsions enough, to be able to maintain the tradition myself and to help others learn how to maintain the tradition?
Trying to write a book is me figuring out what technology to use to rewire myself to become a really good ATM teacher and keep the tradition alive. Moshe used tape recorders, that was his tool. Judith Stransky transcribed his notes to make study materials. I’m trying new ways of transcribing notes on cards, and I am also trying to make a book about my process.
