Years ago, in an improv acting class, two participants had taken the stage. They started with a page from a Streetcar Named Desire and then let it flow from there. They were so in the moment that they swept up the rest of us. For several minutes they created a world that felt entirely real. Suddenly one of the participants broke. Looking totally exasperated, she said she couldn't do it anymore. The rest of us snapped out of the scene like cold water had wrenched us from a trance.


When the teacher asked what happened, the student said she just couldn't do it any more. The teacher said, "Micro/Macro. The little things reflect the bigger ones. Maybe in life you perform brilliantly and go, go, go with all your effort and then drop things altogether when it gets tough."

All the color drained from the student.

It wasn't a particularly kind way to give feedback, but the perspective was pretty keen.

On the Pilates machine my low back and sacrum arch up and away from the carriage when I'm supine on my back. They demand more attention than anything anything else...that I'm aware of. When I'm not paying attention at the computer, lo and behold, I'm swayback. Same, same - micro/macro. In essence, wherever I go, there I am. What do we do with this?

Seems like habits and work go hand in hand; constructive ones require regular upkeep and not-so-constructive ones require consistent effort to be kept at bay. Of course we can't work on things of which we're unaware, so none of this happens without awareness.

It occurred to me today that this is the heart of the teaching methodology at Anya. The routine and our alignment are not necessarily paramount; What is really being taught and repeated is the practice of awareness. We are taught to see, reminded to look and urged to respond. Perhaps this is the only practical response to habits, both "good" and "bad".