Staying in The Present Moment:

 

The mind's tendency is to chatter and often shatter present moment awareness. It constantly reflects on the past, tries to control the future and judges the present.

 

So how do we shift it from these circular tendencies?

 

1/ Do something you love and that engages your senses fully. Orient your life from that place of loving focused engagement to the best of your ability .Serve others from that place.

 

2/ If that does not seem possible in the current moment try these tools to create a GAP for the mind.

     Gratitude

     Acceptance

     Presence

 

Gratitude

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When gratitude is deeply felt, unconditionally as best as you can, seeing the value in what is present and around you, right now, you might well feel a deeper engagement and ease at the heart, especially softening the area between the shoulder blades. Gratitude creates value in the present moment and as such brings the feeling attention to what IS existing, rather than asking always for something better. This can lead to:

 

Acceptance

Sometimes we cannot change the external or we realise that the external will never satisfy something deeper within us. We all have relationships, commitments, responsibilities and habits. Acceptance is one step on from valuing. We trust in ourselves and in life enough to accept what is in our world, with compassion.

The 12- step Aphorism can ring true here:

Accept what you cannot change.

Change the things you can.

Learn the wisdom to know the difference. As we let go of our desire to always control, this elicits something deeper within us.

 

Presence

Knowing that the present moment is truly the only one, we do what feels intuitively correct to our own deeper values, and bring compassion and eventually reorientation to that which is not aligned with those. As we play with the above qualities we may well find that we drop into a place called presence.

The mind here is more spacious, judgements are more easily put aside. We may not know what to do but we can stay with uncertainty.We drop into a deeper part of ourselves that is easeful, more present and not ever seeking.

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Love and Will

 

Love as expressed in most human relationships is a fraught  thing.It is often accompanied with unmet expectations, disappointment and maybe a loss of faith in the very thing which we most desire to give and receive.

As a snake sheds its skin, love is also trying to be as expansive as it can, ever  seeking a new form of expression. If we find that love has become a negative or contracted aspect in our lives, this provides an opportunity for new perspectives and orientations on what love can be. We can continue to focus on what has not been delivered (usually to our own detriment)  or choose to focus on what what qualities of love we can expand upon and shed the skin of our own expectations. This is an act of WILL. We are willing. We will try...to forgive, ourselves and others, to be more gentle or to stand up for ourselves, to break down the borders that separate us from a deeper capacity to love. We can be gentle in this process or forthright in love's strength. We can love enough to set boundaries for healthy relationships or love enough to let go of whatever is needed to be.. Love ever seeks a higher order of its own expression. Anything is possible and and sometimes the most valuable journeys are both subtle and in this quiet sense, deeply expansive.

 If life is constricting, tightening for you at this time then let yourself be moved to a new way of living and loving. Trust in the aphorism: Crisis precedes transformation. Trust. Reach Out. Review what love is to you and give it to yourself as much as to others. See how expansive this play of love can be for you.

I wish us all well.

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Stillness: Resourcing from the Depths

 

The mind in its external orientation seeks to ever control and manipulate the present. It often desires safety, security, stimulation and potency ( this is perfectly okay by the way!) but it has a tendency for self-involvement, self-glorification and self-gratification. I see this aspect of the mind as the tip of the iceberg. From this perspective we stare at the surface of the water and all we see is our external reflections. If all we pay attention to is the external tip we can lose sight of the deeper qualities and values that  sit just under the surface. Employing any method of bringing stillness or centredness to the mind and body and we start to feel the deeper qualities that lie therein. We say hello again to a lost friend. Mindfulness, meditation and any activity in which YOUR mind gets lost (or fully consumed) in the present moment, actively enables us to resource more deeply from beneath the external display of things. Here we find some really juicy resources available.

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Spaciousness, Clarity, Focus, Kindness, Generousity, Acceptance, Loving Awareness, Peace,  Compassion, Perseverance, Joy, Illumination, Connection- the list goes on and on. What is engaged in this place is an ongoing newness from which these qualities bring water to our well-being.

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If mindfulness or meditation appeals then start, continue and probably end simply- it is the best method to combat the mind's tendency for complexity. A simple breath awareness exercise practiced with gentle acceptance and ease can be the foundation for a life long journey of  depth, relaxation and awareness. It can ground one in the nourishment  that lies in the deeper waters beneath the ebb and flow of the external mind.

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All the above are the sole opinion of the writer, Michael Owen, and hold no alignment with any creed or organisation.

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