You are in a queue at the supermarket. The person in front of you has a lot of shopping which they are handling very slowly. The check-out operator is fumbling with a ‘reduced’ price sticker on a packet of custard. The till refuses to beep.
You have a choice. You can get annoyed (which, I would guess, would be your habitual response – it’d be mine. Annoyed plus some sotto voce muttering, very English. Occasional huffing noises.).
However, if you are present and free and conscious you can choose to allow your feet to soften and make good contact with the floor, to pay attention to your peripheral vision, to breathe, to blink, and to think (it’s just a wish) that your neck is free, your head is going forward and up, your whole back is lengthening and widening, and in fact you can enjoy a sneaky moment of expansion and peace right there in full public view. Or, you could do something else – sing, walk out, walk out backwards, whatever. You can choose how you respond to a stimulus.
Grab an Alexander moment. A moment is all you’ll ever need, which is a good job really, as the ‘right now’ is all we ever have.
