Living in Truth - Japan #2

Continuing to post to my blog the messages I am sending out in Japan to the 3,000 on our list. Since yesterday, it has been posted on several blogs, shared in Mixi (Japan's FaceBook) or retweeded more widely. We are getting a positive response - it is good to feel these ideas are supporting people in this crisis.

***

This is Jeremy, BodyChance Education Director.

My guess is that you are thinking about your life deeply at the moment?

I know I am. So many questions come to my mind. So many unanswerable questions…

What will happen in Tokyo? Will I still be able to live here? Should I leave Tokyo? Should I leave Japan? Do I carry on as normal? Do I stay at home and wait? What is the best thing for me to do? Who can I talk to about this?

There are all questions I have thought about. I am guessing you must be thinking about the same.

Soon you realize there are no answers to be found. You don't know what to do…

This is what feels so frustrating, yes? You want to know what will happen. You want some security – some knowledge that is real – to base your decisions on. You wonder "How can I decide what to do, when I do not know what is going on?"

This feeling of being lost is not unfamiliar to people who study Alexander Technique at BodyChance. It is actually how life really is. We think life is certain, we think life is concrete. When we discover that life is not like that, we feel confused.

However, the truth is that nothing ever stays the same.

When my teacher Marj would give me a lesson, I felt terrific. I felt so good. I would think – "Oh, I want to keep this feeling forever. I want to stay like this." Mary would look at me, and quickly say:

"It's never going to feel the same twice."

Marj did not want me to fix things. So about Japan now, you do not want to say to your self "It is like this" . Why? Because tomorrow, you will change. Tomorrow, everything around you will change.

Now you are living in a time which is teaching you this truth. Your life is changing: every year, every month, every week, every hour, every second. You do not know what will happen in Fukushima. Will it be OK? Will it be a disaster? You do not know.

So today you live in this suspended world. And this is the world as it actually is. This is the true world, the world where change is the only constant thing.

So now is the time to live your life truthfully. This day, this moment is real, but tomorrow, next year, next decade, next generation – none of that is real. You do not know what will happen tomorrow, or next year, or the next generation.

Each day you wake up and seek more news. Until you look, you do not know what the world is like today. But you do not have to wait for the news to decide how your life will be today. You do not need to be a victim of circumstances. Instead, you can accept that the world is uncertain, and be certain of its uncertainty. You can decide: "This is how I will live today. In each moment, I can be certain that I do not know what will happen next…"

When you have fearful thoughts, ask your self: "Are these thoughts helping me? How real are there? Do I have any power to change what is happening now?" If you answer yes, great – go do something about it. If you answer no – then what point is there for you to be thinking this way? Do you want to encourage these thoughts?

Sure, you can not really stop your thoughts. That is impossible too. But you can understand "These thoughts of mine are not real. I am only saying it to myself. I do not need to listen to my thoughts as though I was listening to the NHK News!"

This is a helpful question to carry around with you: are these thoughts helpful to me? Are they necessary? Do I want to encourage and nurture these thoughts? Will this help me or not?

And many times you will find "It does not help me to think this way. This is only my imagination. I only know about today. I only know about now. So I will just stay with my whole self."

For those of you who have studied with BodyChance – now you think of your whole body, your whole movement. This brings you back into the present moment. In the present moment, all your power is there.

This is the way to live your true life. It has always been like this. Sometimes it takes a crisis for us to be reminded of how life actually is.

Nothing is sure. Nothing is fixed. But if you love and cherish your self and others, you have the comfort of your self. You have the comfort of this moment. In this moment you can be whole. You can be you. And you can only do what you can do. Nothing more. And nothing less.

My heartfelt best wishes to you all.