Resilience 2020: Lesley Macleod

ESTA UK Online Summer School 9^th -12^th June 2020

     Report for the Nannie Jamieson Nutshell Fund by Lesley Macleod

                              Violin teacher, Kirkwall, Orkney

I attended the ESTA online summer school with the generous financial assistance of the Nannie Jamieson Nutshell Fund.

I have always liked the name of the fund - it sounds warm and nurturing - but I only recently discovered that it refers to violinist and pedagogue Nannie Jamieson’s talent for communicating fundamental aspects of violin technique ‘in a nutshell’.

So what was my experience of the first ESTA online Summer School?

In a nutshell- an overwhelmingly positive experience - stimulation and nourishment for the body and the mind!

The ‘Introduction to Feldenkrais’ sessions, led by cellist Jo Horder, focused on the body; more specifically, the bones.

Moshe Feldenkrais was an East European Jewish engineer, physicist and martial artist, who believed in neuroplasticity - the capacity of the brain to modify its organization and responses through experience and learning - long before the term was even invented!

This concept is tremendously exciting because it means that throughout our lives, from infancy through to old age, we have the capacity to learn, change and improve.

The Feldenkrais method emphasizes:

1. Thinking about the bones,

2. Movement with ease

3. Focused awareness and attention

Jo’s gentle guidance through the exercises on sitting, sensing the length of our arms, and on aligning the skeletal structure that supports all our movements encouraged us to become aware of and refine our sensitivity to how our bodies feel at any given moment.

There was no right or wrong - simply open questions inviting us to notice what was happening in our own bodies.

“Can you sense your collar bone?”

“What do you notice if you shift your weight to the left side while pressing with the  right foot?”

“How has your breathing been during the present situation?”

The deceptively simple act of focusing attention on sensing our bones and how our bodies are feeling at any given moment is revealing and potentially transformative.

I catch myself sitting down in front of the computer and asking myself “Can I feel my sit bones?”

“What about my shoulder girdle?”

“If a laser beam of light was shining out of the top of my head, where would the pin prick of light be right now?”

Immediately, I make tiny adjustments to my posture and feel a renewed sense of vitality in my body.

My adult violin pupils can often worry about whether they have the right shoulder rest, chin rest etc. but the Feldenkrais exercises with Jo have helped me to question body alignment first and to ask my pupils to direct their attention to how they are sitting /standing /breathing first.

If the concept of neuroplasticity lay at the heart of the Feldenkrais method, it was also a concept central to the two workshops led by double bassist and life coach, Lucy Hare entitled ’Resilience’ and ‘Restart or Reinvent?’

The exercises she gave us helped us to see that we always have choices (on how to think or act) even in the most desperate of situations.

These sessions were a timely response to the challenges we all face in the current moment, from Covid19.

I thought I already knew a lot about resilience from over twenty years of teaching, but Lucy’s ‘Wheel of Resilience’ broke the concept down further and invited us to question our purpose (in teaching, in life – what gets us out of bed in the morning?) our resourcefulness (are we curious, open to learning new things?) our mental flexibility (catch your mindset and know you have choice) practical flexibility (what practical things do I need to change in order to do things differently?)

As Lucy said, “good questions stimulate thinking”

I think that by the end of the session, most of us realized that we were far more resilient than we had at first thought- an empowering outcome – and it means we will convey these ideas and this mindset to our students.

Due to other commitments, I was not able to attend all of the online summer school sessions but I feel I have benefited hugely from those I did attend: ‘Feldenkrais’ ‘Resilience’ and ‘Restart or Reinvent’

I am very grateful to the wonderful ESTA team and the Nannie Jamieson Nutshell Fund for all their support during a difficult year.

                                                                                                         Lesley Macleod

                                                                                                           5^th July 2020