The Now creates change. With the stress of our daily lives, we are constantly to future plans, future love, future success, future peace; or we look to the past to past happiness, past success, comparing the great past self to what we are now. The more we take ourselves out of the NOW, we become dis-embodied and dis-integrated.
The work I prioritize is the NOW. My dear teacher Helene would say “Alexanders work is about 2 things: Self-Presence and Self-Acceptance.” What I now believe, is that what she truly was teaching me was how to back to the present, the NOW. My biggest battle is with perfectionism, anytime those habits arise, I look back at the past when I had no pain, when I was doing things I loved. I look to the future where I am living a “Perfect” and “Dream” life. Every time I find myself doing this, I always find pain and emptiness.
The NOW may not be perfect or ideal, but it is the only true thing we have. When we can invite ourselves to present, something magical is possible. We can begin to become Embodied, we can being integrating ourselves with the collective whole of what exists in that moment. When we meet ourselves in the moment, we can find presence and acceptance. Acceptance of all the things we love and cherish about ourselves and the moment, and acceptance of what we don’t have and what we strive for in the present.
The Technique gives space for awareness in the present, with that presence, we have the ability to see where we want to go and have the access to choices. These choices can take us where we want to go with Self-Presence and Self-Acceptance. This journey is not easy or perfect, but it can bring so much peace and love.