Monday morning, 9h30, I walk up the stairs and enter the room for my next seminar. Five pairs of eyes stare at me as if I had just stolen a piece of chocolate from their plate. I realise that I am late. I was completely convinced that the seminar would start at 10h00 like all the previous ones, but apparently not. Oops. Sorry. What can I say?
But by the first break I realised that this would again be a wonderful group and I had a great time with them learning different relaxation techniques. Of course, we learned about stress and all the reasons we need relaxation in the first place. The fun part was learning about the solutions. We dealt with creating relaxation courses, PMR (Progressive Muscle Relaxation), Qi Gong, visual meditation, fantasy journeys, working with colours and scents, chakras and even Yoga. I think my favourite was the Qi Gong. It is almost like doing martial arts in slow motion. Wow, eventually a ‘sport’ where you don’t need to break out in a sweat. Perfect for a coach potato like me. Okay, my walk may be the exception to the rule. I don’t mind walking but I would never dream of jogging 20km a day.
Another technique I have always liked is Fantasy Journeys. Here you guide your group/clients to a harmonious, beautiful and safe environment in their own fantasy. They all lie on soft mats, covered with their own ‘safety’ blanket and with their eyes closed and then you start the journey by slowly and with lots of pauses saying something like: “Imagine you are walking through a beautiful field. There are flowers everywhere, flowers in all colours of the rainbow. You can smell the flowers. You can see the butterflies flying from one blossom to the next. See how a butterfly comes and sits on your hand. Look at the colours on the wings. See how they shine in the warm sun light. . . .” And so you guide their minds to a most peaceful place where there is no room for all the stress of their daily life. But you don’t leave them there. At the end you always bring them back to reality, but they will have new strength to deal with whatever comes up.
I also learned from and take my hat off to my fellow class mates, the powerladies. We were a great mix. There was Gabi, who was so keen on learning new things that she practised every technique we dealt with on her poor husband the moment she got home. There was Christine, who comes from a business world background and who could put you in your place in a jiffy. Then there were Marion and Louise, who are both running their own massage studios and who where looking for new techniques to incorporate. And, of course, there was Christine, our teacher, who you don’t want to mess with, because she does the real martial arts. Well, yes, she does martial arts but she was sweet, with a lot of knowledge, experience and wisdom. Last and least their was me. I will definitely take the back seat here.
On Thursday it was Gabi’s birthday. That morning I also got the message from back home that one of my friends was admitted to hospital to have her baby. I shared this with my group and all day long we where waiting together for the baby to arrive on Gabi’s birthday. We even sent a “Good luck!” message to my friend.
But, alas, Renesmé decided to wait for the next day and was born on the 26th. Welcome to this world, Renesmé! Congrats to the happy parents, Tammy and Corné!
Friday and Saturday night it paid off that we were doing relaxation exercises all week long. My hotel had a weekend disco in the basement. The doef, doef, doef from the bass speakers was so loud that the door of my room literally vibrated on its hinges with an audible crrr, so from 23h00 until 5h00 in the morning my interrupted moments of sleep were bombarded with the doef crrr, doef crrr, doef crrr mixed with the extreme loud snoring from the person in the room next door. Doef crrr, doef crrr, doef crrr, snooorrre, doef crrr, doef crrr, snooorrre, doef crrr, doef crrr, doef crrr, snooorrre, doef crrr . . . . .
From Nürnberg my plans are to visit friends and family for a week to relax and have a few quiet nights’ sleep. On the 6th of July I will travel to Neustadt to continue on the second stretch of my walk. I hope to reach Hamburg around the 16th.
Doef crrr, doef crrr, snooorrre, doef crrr, doef crrr for now. Will write again soon.
Your experiences are piling up Edzard – keep going. One of these days you will run a 21!