Everyone's an Actor

Who are you?  You're an actor!  
Take on your role, play it up, and own it!

You are the director.  Direct yourself!
The world is your stage, right here, right now.

Where are your feet?  NO! Don't move them!
Let them be where they are!

Where is your head? Where are your shoulders?
Let them be, and thrive within them.

Do you find your legs tight?  Then leave them alone.
Your role requires it, so play it!

How is your neck? Your spine?  Your chest?
Are they compressed?  Are they curved, or caved in?

However they are is how they need to be now,
To fulfill your unique role in this play.

So let yourself be uptight, and let yourself be down.
This is the character you are meant to play.

So put all of your energy into playing this role...
And own where you are, and enjoy it!

Enjoy yourself as you direct your body.
Wherever it is, whatever its shape,
In this moment it is according to script.

Relish the shape, relish the role,
and put your whole heart and soul in it.

Enjoy the role, enjoy the play!
And notice: are you breathing??

Maybe you can laugh at this comedy act.
Maybe it isn't a tragedy...?

Contort yourself more, exaggerate the acting...
See how the drama unfolds...

When you enjoy your part (even if it seems to be evil!),
You cannot help but breathe.

Now let the breath move your actor around.
What happens next?  You decide!

Does the character change?
Or stay stuck and enslaved?
You're the director; you're the one who can choose!

Are you a puppet, a slave, or an idiot?
Or a human being endowed with free will?

If you believe that you're free, then become the part.
Your thoughts will transform who you are.

Jaques:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 139–143

The Neck is Free

Our nature is pure consciousness, and this consciousness is free.
We have the freedom to think, and the freedom to choose.
Whatever comes into our awareness is included in our experience,
so we can say: "I am that."

My nature is freedom, and yet this freedom means that I am also free to block or deny it.
When I block my freedom so that I am not free, I experience that, and become not-freedom.  I am that.

My body is included in who I am, so this body is free.  Yet, I block that freedom.
My neck is part of this body; the neck is free.
But I block this freedom by my lack of awareness of it, and thereby stiffening my neck.

Do I want to be free?  Or do I want to be stuck and stiff?

If I want to be free, what will free me?
I am the only one who has this power over myself.
Only I can choose whether to be free or stuck.

If I choose to experience freedom, how can I do this?

Every thought has an effect on the body.
I must realize that my nature is freedom, and think this thought.

I am free.
The neck is free.

When I think the thought, "The neck is free," knowing that this is true,
because my experience, my consciousness, includes all things,
I am that.

To think, "The neck is free," is to let the neck be free.
This, in itself, is the act of freeing the neck.
With this thought, we realize our inherent freedom and we allow it to be, without interfering with it.

The Process

What is my intention?  What is my goal?  What is my desired outcome?
Is the goal so important that I am willing to give up my well-being during the process of reaching it?
Is the goal really that important?
Is achieving a goal in the future really more important than who I am in the present?
Do I ultimately have any control over the future?

My student has a specific goal.
But, there are so many other goals attached to that goal, including issues of self-worth and happiness, that the goal has taken on larger-than-life proportions.
Fear of the worst has set in, and she realizes that she is stuck.
Speculation about the future has partially paralyzed her, so that it seems at times that she is not moving towards her goal, and that she is also not taking care of her well-being as well as she could.
She is usually not living in the present, she is not trusting the flow of present moments which become a process as they are experienced one after another, and she is experiencing pain which she can hardly endure.
If she continues in this direction, it is highly unlikely that she will achieve her goal, and her well-being will continue to suffer.

Is there a way to achieve our goal AND take care of our well-being in the process?
Is there a way to see ourselves as more important than the goal, and yet continue to aim towards the goal, and possibly achieve it?

I believe there is.

How?

1. I think the first step is to make THAT the primary goal, while believing that it is possible.  In other words:  to consider our (well-)Being as more important than what we might achieve (the secondary goal), while aiming towards the goal and trusting that it is possible to achieve it with our wholeness/integrity intact.

2. The second step is to get out of the way, which means we need to see which thoughts are paralyzing us, and to stop thinking them.

3. The third step is to think the thoughts that will help carry us in the new direction.  These positive thoughts include thoughts of trust, and allowing the process to flow, and letting ourselves be carried towards our goal, while continuing on with the first two steps.

"The belief in a thing makes it happen." - Frank Lloyd Wright

What are your goals??

What do you believe??

The "I Wonder" Game

Purpose: to question without requiring an answer. to awaken curiosity. to open the mind to new possibilities. to see things in a new light. to become more childlike and creative. etc.

How to play: begin sentences with the words, "I wonder"... and do not rush to find an answer to your musings.  Wait and allow.  Watch and wonder.

Rules: I wonder if there are any...

How to win: you win by playing. you win by enjoying the game.

How to lose: you lose if you try to get it right or control the outcome and forget to wonder about that.


I wonder if I'm forgetting anything...hmmmmmm...............................
Ok! I wonder if anyone will join me in this game...  
I wonder what will happen next!

On Love and Depression

We are beings made of Love.  Love is not other than Life, because nothing can exist in isolation; there is always a constant exchange of energy which sustains and enhances all living things, a connection which unites everything that seems to be separate.

I believe that depression occurs when that exchange of energy...that constant movement of Life-Love...is out of balance.

Pain and suffering are experienced when we are blind to this constant exchange, which happens all the time, effortlessly and automatically.

When we are blind to the fact that we are constantly receiving nourishment, support, and life-enhancing energy--Love--from without, we feel disconnected from the world and other people, and we begin to collapse into depression because we become ignorant of the exquisite beauty that surrounds us, and we forget that all is One, and we are part of It.

When we are blind to the fact that we are necessarily intertwined and constantly giving ourselves to the world, which is constantly receiving us (whether the world is aware of this or not), we feel worthless and disconnected, and we collapse into depression for the same reasons.

It is said that 'to give is more blessed than to receive'...perhaps because giving is usually perceived as something more active than receiving...but to receive is also an active opening and letting go...and perhaps equally blessed.  (Besides, are the two things really different??)

So there are two potential keys to rising up out of depression:  to give, and to receive.

What do we need to give?  What do we need to receive?

Our awareness of the ever-present Life-Love, within and without.

How do we do this?


We don't need to 'do' anything, because this Life-Love already is within us, and all around us, flowing and being Itself all the time.  We just need to stop blocking It and intend to be conscious of It, leaving ourselves alone, and letting Love Live...and letting Life Love.

If we stop for a moment to notice, we can choose to be open to receive the Life-Love that is constantly glowing and moving all around us, and we can allow It to enter us (one of the easiest ways is through the breath).

We can also choose to express/give the Life-Love that we are made of.  This giving happens by itself when we stop blocking it, because this Life-Love is what we are, and it is in the nature of the Good to shine and communicate Itself, through us and through everything that exists in this world.

Accepting Support

Support is everywhere: within and without.
It comes towards us through everything,
Always reaching for us, waiting for us to become aware of it.
If we stop disconnecting ourselves from it, and stop ignoring it or denying our need for it,
Our hearts and minds and bodies can finally open to humbly receive it.

We are connected to everything, as if by invisible strings, or golden threads.
If we trust these nourishing and sustaining lifelines of support,
And stop trying to support ourselves without this ever-present help from beyond ourselves,
We can let go and fall, to be caught up by this gentle embrace
Which wants to help us be ourselves.

By risking losing what we think is our balance,
By trusting that which is only known by intuition and deeply-buried experience,
We let it coax us back into our rightful shape.
In this way, we right ourselves,
And with bliss, we merge with and meet the space to which we rightfully belong.

Preparation and Anxiety

I have an AT presentation this afternoon, with less than 45 minutes to prepare for it.  I have had many days, even weeks, to prepare, yet have chosen not to.  Today, this thought brings up little twinges of anxiety, as if I were receiving micro-injections of adrenaline into my middle.

Stopping.
Noticing.

I feel it in my abdomen...
chest...
arms...
neck...

I am choosing not to react to these feelings, and to the thoughts that come up which are triggering the feelings.

Interesting.
Makes me curious...

Allowing myself to smile.
Allowing lengthening, widening, expanding.

Noticing muscular contractions which express a direction/energy that wants me to close up and shut down, freeze, fight, or flee...

Not reacting.
Not judging.

Not preparing.

Allowing life to flow as it will.

How could I possibly prepare to teach the Alexander Technique in any way other than by practicing it??

The Alexander Technique has been called 'a skill for life'.
How can you prepare for life if you're already alive?  No need.

No need to prepare.
And...this is the best way to prepare.

Just stopping.
Just noticing.
Just allowing.

Everything is flowing exactly as it needs to, and I am not interfering.
I'm enjoying the ride...