I sat down at the beginning of this year, intending to write an article for this website.  All I could see was that 2020 was going to mean huge change, literally changing everything we have ever known and for everyone on the planet. I had absolutely no idea how this was going to play out. So I waited. 

Then the pandemic came and the world stopped.  It was astonishing. A pandemic had been expected for some time. What astonished me was that everything stopped. In the Alexander Technique we talk about ‘inhibition’ – stopping.  You have a thought and it will lead you to the same way of moving / responding that you have always had.  Unless you stop, and redirect. 

The world, as we knew it, stopped.  

Suddenly, we noticed that our skies were quieter.  I had never realised how many planes flew over my house!  Waters everywhere became clearer as pollution levels dropped.  The air itself was easier to breathe as cars stayed at home. 

I saw people reconnect to themselves, to their families, to what mattered in life.  Fear lay like a huge blanket over many places but despite that people sang on their balconies, went for walks in nature, reconnected with a part of themselves they had forgotten about. And the entire planet seemed to do a reset. 

When people say they just want to get back to normal, I wonder what that means as there is no ‘normal’ to go back to. There is no going back, only forwards. To what?  To whatever we choose to create now.  We stopped, now we redirect. What ‘directions’ are we choosing to adopt now?  

In January, I sat and looked forward and saw nothing more than a huge wave of change. Now I sit and look forward again. Like everyone else, I want it to end.  I want to see the other side of all this. But that’s not what I see. It’s not over. And our biggest challenges lie ahead of us, in the next few months.  Can we truly embrace the changes, the inevitable changes that we cannot avoid, and in doing so, use change to recreate ourselves, our lives, our whole way of being? 

It is an option. Yes, it demands discipline, vigilance. But it is an option: physical change, emotional change, spiritual connection. 

Thoughts are electrical: neural pathways, synapses, all are electrical impulses.

Feelings are magnetic.  How often have you been with someone and ‘felt’ their joy/ sadness/anger?  You have perhaps known their  ‘I’m OK’  didn’t ring true. 

When you have thoughts and add feelings / emotions to those thoughts, you pull them into your electromagnetic field.  You literally become the way you think and feel.  Sometimes the thoughts aren’t even yours – it’s something someone else has told you and you have accepted it as yours.  This can be someone else’s anger, fear, doubt, guilt, judgement, ‘shoulds’ and ‘ have tos’, imposed from outside, not resonating with your own heart-felt desires at all. 

The next few months offer us a choice.  We can focus, moment by moment, on a present time basis, on loving, peaceful outcomes for ourselves and our global community or we can lose ourselves in the waves of out of control fear and anger, blame and judgement, none of which serves us in any way at all. 

Where we place our focus is how we will feel. 

So please join me. 6 months minimum of holding peace, light and love for ourselves and, by extension, for our world. It will make a huge difference to us as individuals. It will permeate out from us to the rest of the planet. 

Then our own reset can complete and we can choose what we want  to create in our new world.

Could be very interesting!

Susan

Many people use the Alexander Technique as a tool to help them deal with change.  In current times, change is inevitable, whether this involves our personal lives or much wider global issues, such as climate change.  The problem with all change is that we have to step away from the familiar and embrace a new, as yet unfamiliar, way of living. We have a lot of thought, emotion and belief invested in our ‘old’ versions of who we are and it can be hard to acknowledge and let go of them.  If our ‘new’ doesn’t feel familiar, it can even cause panic.

I worked with a lady some years ago who was in a lot of discomfort physically and wanted to improve her ‘bad posture’.  At the end of half an hour or so, she stood tall and straight and felt ‘different’. I thought she looked great. Then she looked in the mirror. I don’t know what she saw, but she burst into tears, exclaimed ‘I could never let my friends see me looking like this’, and left.  I never saw her again.

Dealing with my own personal current change recently, I found myself posing the question:

‘Do you care more about who you were than about who you are?’  

It was only when I recognised  how much I had invested in my old ‘stories’ that I was able to to move on from the impasse where I found myself.

Who do you care most about?

I hope you all enjoy this year of change and new beginnings

Susan

It’s a new year and my feeling is that 2018 has the potential to be a year like no other we have yet experienced.  2017 was difficult in many ways for many people and presented huge challenges for some of us. Can we now allow all that to be in the past and simply move on?

More and more, we are becoming the conscious creators of our own reality, a reality which has its roots deep inside us.  I have talked to so many people who desperately want their lives to change but  who are unwilling to allow the inner change to happen first.  Their outer world : job, relationship, home etc has to change before they can focus on their dreams. So nothing ever changes.

Think of a spiral – we move through life in this spiral and we meet the same challenges over and over. Things repeat until we finally address them. Then they lose their power over us.

Worry is toxic. Anxiety is toxic. Guilt is toxic. Resolve in 2018 to stop poisoning yourself. Notice the patterns and, as far as possible in that moment,  let go of the thought or the feeling. Don’t suppress it, just acknowledge it and let it go. Stop feeding it your time and effort and stop resisting it. With practice, you will find these patterns and habits no longer have a hold over you. They become less intense, have less importance. Then you feel more peaceful.

Consciously or unconsciously, you control your inner world. Your outer world will always be a match for this because every choice you make in life comes from this inner world, your belief system, the programming you have absorbed from birth.

Let 2018 be your year to create a new way of being – and if you don’t like your first attempt at this, you can always change this too!

Nothing is fixed. And whatever is happening in your life, your attitude is what is important. How do you feel about a situation? Joyful? Good! Anything else? Change it. Change the thought and the feeling first.

Whatever else you focus on, make 2018 the year you stop worrying, about yourself or anyone else. The purpose of your life is to sort yourself out, not others. That means dropping judgement and criticism, of others and yourself. It means no longer being a martyr to other people’s demands. Let it all go. If something makes you feel good, give it all your focus, your energy. If it doesn’t make you feel good, recognise it is depleting you, draining you, even toxic to you. Stop the thoughts and feelings about it, focus elsewhere – the more you practise this, the easier it gets. Then you feel better.

Avoid negativity in the media and the like.

Give your love to yourself first. Being self-ish is a good idea! Make you the most important person in your universe. 2018 is a different year, one that is there to support you wherever you place your thoughts and feelings, your responses to life’s adventures and challenges. So allow 2018 to support you in your endeavours to be more at peace, more joyful, more loving. Let the rest go. This year is all about you. Leave the past behind and focus on the inside, the inner you. Be vigilant and maintain a sense of humour – it is ever your ally in stopping negativity in its tracks. Switch to fun thoughts as often as you can and play more.

Then watch and see how your outside world changes. 2018 is your best chance yet to create your dreams so be careful what you wish for! Focus on how you want to feel and let the finer details take care of themselves.

I wish you all a wonderful 2018 with all its promise of a new start for us all.

Susan