"I suddenly turned right. Or something turned me right. It was like Zen, but not as subtle. If you weren't present you'd crash and the mountain hit you. And I realized at that point that all my life I'd been doing a kind of subtle suicide to myself. I'd always be somewhere else in my head. I'd always be thinking "Oh, I could be there. Or I could be there. Or I wish I was there." But now when I'm skiing I don't have that - as long as I'm skiing."
The crucial importance of being present, not "somewhere else", in one's head, has been acknowledged by many other writers and thinkers. For example, in his final novel, Island, Aldous Huxley wrote about the adventures of a shipwrecked Englishman on Pala, an imaginary island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The society on this island had evolved to the point where there was universal economic and social well-being and a high level of respect for individual rights and freedoms. Moreover, individuals were given every opportunity to develop emotionally and spiritually.
One of the many unusual features of Pala are specially trained birds - mynah birds - whose sole function is to loudly screech out "Here and now! Here and now!" at random intervals.
Huxley had studied many systems of personal development during his life, including the Alexander Technique. He met F. Matthias Alexander, the developer of the Technique (1) in London in the mid-1930's He was already an established author, best known for his 1930 novel Brave New World. But his poor physical state threatened to end his writing career.
Huxley was very tall and awkward and subject to fatigue, insomnia and a weak stomach. He was deathly afraid to speak in public. By the time he met Alexander, he was virtually bed-ridden, reduced to writing lying down with his typewriter resting on his chest.
The lessons he had from Alexander enabled him to resume his normal activities and live in good health for another quarter century. He was so impressed with Alexander's work that he referred to it several times in his later writings and even made Alexander a character in one of his novels.
