My “In The Moment” article was written very early in my blogging career. My friend and editor Jeri Walker discovered this post while pursuing my site. I took a moment to review my missive and found it as pertinent today as it was in 2011. That said I decided to reshare it once again.
In The Moment
Much has been going on in my life that has caused much reflection.
My mind has been overcrowded with numerous projects, decisions to be made and where next to focus my energies. It has left me with a feeling of being stuck. It stems from focusing too much on “the what if” and not “what now”. My thoughts drift to everything that has occurred in my life. I see how much I’ve achieved. I know opportunities to learn are infinite. It’s my belief in sharing a lifetime of knowledge, could help guide someone else. Maybe they could even avoid some the mistakes I’ve made through my sharing.
Much has been going on in my life that has caused much reflection. My mind has been overcrowded with numerous projects, decisions to be made and where next to focus my energies. It has left me with a feeling of being stuck. It stems from focusing too much on “the what if” and not “what now”. My thoughts drift to everything that has occurred in my life. I see how much I’ve achieved. I know opportunities to learn are infinite. It’s my belief in sharing a lifetime of knowledge, could help guide someone else. Maybe they could even avoid some the mistakes I’ve made through my sharing.
Much has been going on in my life that has caused much reflection. My mind has been overcrowded with numerous projects, decisions to be made and where next to focus my energies. It has left me with a feeling of being stuck. It stems from focusing too much on “the what if” and not “what now”. My thoughts drift to everything that has occurred in my life. I see how much I’ve achieved. I know opportunities to learn are infinite. It’s my belief in sharing a lifetime of knowledge, could help guide someone else. Maybe they could even avoid some the mistakes I’ve made through my sharing.
Happenings from everyday existence have inspired many of the things I’ve garnered/learned from life. These are valuable lessons. The trick is knowing what knowledge to share and what to hold back. This would require that I’m “present,” and “in the moment” with an uncluttered mind.
I do know when I look at everything that’s occurred in life; I can see how much I’ve achieved and how many people I have helped. I also know opportunities to learn and share are limitless.
Among the many things I’ve been thinking, is; what should be my next move, what to share and what will be of value. I’ve had a lot of time to reflect in the past few months. To find myself “in the moment“ is one of many thoughts that come to mind as I go about my day. What has occurred to me is I’ve mentioned being “in the moment” a great deal when I write or in conversation with others. It made sense to give it voice. It may help with my decisions.
Have you ever wondered what being in the moment means? I’m sure all have a belief or thought as to what that is. I view it like this. You just know when we’re there, at the moment. Nothing else seems to matter, time appears to slow, there is a pure sense of peace, and there is a sharp clarity of all our senses. It’s a little peace of heaven. If we’re aware, we’ll try to hold on to that moment for as long as we can. However, other thoughts start creeping in, worry, plans and the myriad of thoughts that crowd out that moment of heaven. I do wonder why it is that we so desire that feeling, but somehow find ourselves most often without it.
Finding a way to be “in the moment” is one of the most important things I believe we should learn. We spend a good deal of time looking to the next day, week, a year or a lifetime, so much so that we miss all that’s in front of us. We try hard to anticipate what will happen, wishing “if only this or that” would happen. We plan, plot and organize our future in our minds to that end. That’s when our old friend “fear” shows up with the thought that our plans will be for not.
At that moment, we’re not at all aware of our surroundings or anything else for that matter. We’re now on automatic pilot, unconscious of our surroundings and our actions. I liken this to a fog like state. Some time later we come out of this fog, and we wake up. We find ourselves surprised we have just arrived at our destination or worse we’re going in the wrong direction with little to no recollection as to what happened in the space between. It happens to all of us all too often. The fact is we’ve just lost that time. If we’re lucky, nothing bad has happened. If we’re not, we’ll have an accident, miss something important, or we get hurt in some way. To me, we miss the fact that we spend so much time in the “fog” of tomorrow that we lose our greatest gift, the gift of today, living our lives right now. I think of it as dreaming our life away.
This subject is where my thoughts drifted while I was on a walk. It started off with spending time thinking about a plethora of things. Without my noticing. My mind quieted and slipped into listening to birdsong. Unexpectedly, I found myself “in the moment” without a care. This time, I was aware and decided to hold onto that feeling for as long as I was able. I realized when I’m “in the moment” I’m not as self-absorbed. I’m totally relaxed, and all the stress of the day is absent. It was then that I noticed the beauty of nature, all the things that had always been there but was too busy with my thoughts to notice.
It’s amazing what you see when we’re totally aware. I’m not going to go into all the things that I saw on my walk. Suffice it to say I was amazed and saddened that it had taken me so long to be in the present, to truly see what has been in front of me all this time. The question is how much do we miss because we’re in this mental fog. I would say it’s truly more than we will ever know.
It’s amazing to me how we learn and when we’re open enough to receive a lesson. This week birdsong was my trigger, my teacher. I need to do more to be aware and to be in the moment as much as possible. Again, I’m reminded that this is all part of our life’s journey. I am a teacher. That is my gift. If I’m able to use each lesson I learn each day, I believe my life will be full of opportunities, wondrous things and the many gifts life has to offer. By sharing what I’ve learned along the way, my hope is that I’m able to help others to do the same. I believe that guide I must use to determine my next move should be.
How do you view being present, in the moment if you will? Do you find yourself in that fog like state? Do you plan your future at the expense of “the now”?
Life’s journey continues…
If you appreciated “In The Moment,” take a look at 3 Keys To Success, Fear – A Four-Letter Word, and Confidence, What Is It?.
P.S. Take a moment to check out and purchase some of the tools I’ve used in my quest. 🙂