AVRT and the NOW
 

Hello - Please could someone explain what the emphasis in AVRT on the NOW is all about. Is it-
1) My big plan is never to drink again and that includes NOW - so don't bother me Beast with your barking.
2) Since I realise the Beast is IT and I am ME - thus NOW I am the one in control, not the Beast.
3) The Beast is only interested in NOW. As long as it can convince me to drink or use just for NOW, it will be perfectly happy since drinking or using NOW will extend to drinking or using forever.
Thanks

The Beast has no innate understanding of time as we know it, since it is only concerned with the present moment. The Beast is essentially timeless, but it has access to your thoughts, and it will use the idea that "then" is different from "now" to try and undermine your confidence.

The AV will say "sure, you can say you'll never drink again NOW, but just wait, I'll get you THEN." If we realize that "I will never drink again" is really the same thing as "I will never drink in the present moment," though, then this Beast ploy is exposed as a farce and neutralized.

This was covered in the main AVRT discussion thread, which, along with the Rational Recovery book, I recommend reading from the very beginning.
PS: You may get more responses to your questions on AVRT if you post in the main thread.

I used the 'now' concept when I started reading Tolle and learning about mindfulness, living in the present moment, based on the concept of the eternal now. 'Now' is the only time in which anything happens, the only moment over which we have any control. So, in keeping with that, I vowed to 'never now' drink, focusing my awareness and intent to a brilliant point of ultimate power and resolve.

As I have become comfortable with that, I am finding it useful again to consider the eternal forever nature of my commitment. It is useful because of how it helps to further expose my AV, and because of the comfort and peace it gives.