You may have heard of Eckhart Tolle's bestseller - The Power of Now. His realization that the present moment held all that he sought saved his life. The notion of the present being the present - or this moment right now being the true gift of life - may seem like mere cliche for how widely circulated this idea is. But like all simple and powerful ideas, it takes intentional study and consideration to understand the depth of its teaching.
When you think about all that you really desire - what do you imagine?
Put in a different way - WHEN will you allow yourself to be happy? For so many of us, we literally put off living in the present in favor of getting just a little further. For myself and my friends, I have heard patterns of telling ourselves we will be happy once we get to that next step. And you can reflect for yourself or your friends that this idea becomes a groundhog day rip tide of repeating the intention to wait. We do meet that milestone and then find a new one to take its place to prolong our moment until we decide to live in the present. We wait until we leave our city / move back home, go to college, finish that semester, graduate, finally get that graduate degree, get a job, leave a job, find the love our life, start a family, have another kid, wait until the kids go to school, until the kids graduate, until our vacation, until we finish that project, until we start that project, until we retire.....
You know this treadmill, right? I do.
What we are putting off is fully accepting our life as it is and deciding to enjoy it. The truth is what we all really want is LIFE and breath.
We want other things too like purpose, status, family, wealth, connection, joy. But on a deeper level, what we really want ONLY exists in THIS MOMENT. And even if the snapshot of perfection that we desire hasn't come full circle yet, there are elements of everything we want IN THIS MOMENT right now. It isn't hard. We just are out of practice living present and collectively reinforce our anxiety of over-preparing and over-performing to try to get right now what we think we might need 5 years from now. Goals and visions for the future are great. Be careful of the trap of assuming the goodness to be had in life is out there in the future. It is RIGHT HERE. You can EMBODY the truth and joy of life right here in the present moment.
I think about the last conversation I had with my dad before he passed about joy. He said to have joy was to have life. My dad had been living present for the past couple decades. It looked "easy" from the outside as he got to do what he loved for 3 weeks of the month (trauma surgery) and then go on stunning vacations the other week of the month. But for him - even when his cancer had caused a fracture in his shin (operable) and his right shoulder (un-operable), and he was using a walker, and he could not wipe his butt, and his biggest concern of the day was if he was going to be able to move his bowels - he still reflected, "I'm so tickled to be alive today."
This present moment contains the abundance and freedom we are seeking.
You may agree at a deep level but still wonder how to actually BE present. It does take practice. And there are thousands of strategies and meditation techniques to get there. Here are some simple methods:
Spend even 2 minutes focusing on your breath everyday (aka meditating)
Feel the sensations of your body as you do physical things like swimming, yoga, dancing, exercise (aka subtle body activation)
Anytime you start questioning if you're ever going to be happy - say to yourself, "I am alive. I am alive. I am alive." (aka mantra)
For more guidance, Paradigm Expansions is launching a beautiful 30-day course using the evidence-based techniques listed above to find presence and joy within yourself daily. We would love to share it with you. Reach out with questions or interest in the course.
You can also vibe with me in this YouTube video on living with presence.
Comments