The present of being … present.
Today I caught myself reflecting on the past few weeks.
I’m finding myself more stressed, sleep deprived, and unproductive in my attempt to be more productive and make things happen in my life.
This year started with a strong desire of changing my life, of living in my truth and potential and making my life, the time that comprises of life... each second, a live truth of my being, in what I am, think, speak and what I do throughout my day.
This life of doing something that I’m only mildly interest for the sake of survival and a mild comfort is becoming something I’m less and less interested in doing... and in my running away, from that life, I end up pushing the machine. The machine being my mind, my body, my connection to God and replacing the state of being in the now, with being somewhere in the future where reality is different from this moment.
I was reminded that this moment is really all we got, because it’s what always is. The water that has already passed through a river is never coming back, not the same water.
Finding this balance between building something, to reach a destination, while enjoying the journey and being present.
Go with the flow, I got this message today... stress to get somewhere is a difficulty in letting go, in accepting the present moment... it’s the mindset of I will be happy when... my daily meditation reminds me the each moment can be a happy moment, it’s the closeness to our inner truth that matters, that guides our actions, decisions, the difference between walking awake and being a mindless sleep walker.
When in the present, we can still move, travel to a destination, we just accept the period in between that it will takes us to get there, without straining the transport, by wishing it to be faster than it can be... causing it to overheat, burnout, or have an accident... It’s like being thirsty and looking for water, while carrying a bottle filled with it, that always fills itself but keep looking for water to kill the thirst.
And I love journeys, specially by car, whether I’m driving or being driven, I love looking at the scenery passing by, the forest, trees, changing landscapes... there’s a certain silence in it, and a sense of travelling in time... moments when my mind is just observing and taking it all in... it’s a meditation in itself.
In searching for gold and treasures we may forget the wealth of nature around us, the delicious food and beauty it offers us, we may forget the wealth of our health mentally, emotionally, physically that once lost it can be irreversible, but is the only vehicle for us to live a truly happy life, we also may forget to create moments of connection with our loved ones, friends and family... moments that fill us with joy, juiciness, smile that if we missed them, we don’t get them back... isn’t that also something to aspire? Presents of the moment... isn’t that wealth? Maybe the best wealth one can have?
I forgot that I’m a daughter of my own culture and therefore I desire what my culture has in a way or another taught me to desire... somehow I feel a much deeper key and truth here. This grinding culture, that never stops, that glorifies masochistic effort in order to achieve what it deems success, as if once there, then I finally have time to truly be... be what? Be something that I can only really find and feel internally?... but that time is always now. There’s a huge difference between walking awake and filled with presence, and blindly walking absently from life, chasing tomorrow, endlessly for that chimera, the golden city. The world we live in with all its troubles is a reflection of this mindless blind walking, because it’s blind to the truth that really matters, and therefore we don’t see the things we do that impact the whole, we don’t think them to be so important.
It’s in this mindless sleep walking I can forget that I’m made of soul and spirit, there are other ways of doing things, ways that are seen as miracles, but awake beings lived them as their normal day to day... that one way limits my vision, connection, intuition, sight, perception, and the other way opens me to all possibilities that the Universe offers... there is not a golden city out there. The Golden city is always in us, with us, available to us here and now. We live in it, breathe in it, walk on it... and so easily forget that we live in a very tiny pearl in the size of a tiny drop suspense in a vast universal ocean... an ocean that we know almost nothing about, but our tiny little drop and a few more around us. We downsize what is real, what is possible to a sized boxed mindset and forget that we are part of this immense ocean.
In other cultures, there are other values, maybe there is a culture where losing one’s inner peace is looked at as a failure. Where chasing a future sacrificing the present moment, is deemed as madness. Where knowing thyself fully is the highest form of success anyone can achieve... maybe if not on this planet, then who knows, in a Galaxy far far away.
And what are really our treasures? What makes it all worth it?
We are given only so much time in a lifetime... and time is a treasure. How much time are you truly here, and truly present?
#Reflections and Insights
1st aid to get back to the present
Gratitude list
Meditation
Sleep and rest
Taking time off
Do something creative (painting, singing, writing, dancing)
Meet a friend, or loved one
Cuddle buddying/ affectionate touch
Yoga
Read inspirational texts or spiritual masters
Spending time in nature
Eat slowly tasting every bite