Mindfulness comes fully into the present moment
Rushing is a habit that is at the heart of a stressful life and keeps you from fully arriving at the present moment. The image of a Zen monk slowly and attentively raking the sand garden is at odds with the Western lifestyle of rushing from one thing to another, but it doesn’t have to be that way; calm and deliberate actions are as simple as learning to enjoy the present moment and be your natural self.
Living authentically and fully in the present moment is common advice when it comes to living happily and peacefully. Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh emphasizes that you should make the present moment your home and Eckhart Tolle tells us all about the power of the now. So how do we live that way?
An easy way to tap into the peace and power of the now is to consciously try to stop rushing.
You’ll never be able to enjoy where you are if you’re always in a hurry to get somewhere else. To stop rushing is to stop trying to escape the present moment and go somewhere else, and instead be happy with the moment you are in. If you make a habit of being happy to be present in every moment, it will quickly become effortless and natural. and you may find yourself enjoying the simplest events of your day.
Make a habit of being in the moment and your life will slowly reveal the beauty of simplicity.
Too often, we use the present moment as a “means to an end,” just passing through to get somewhere else, never really coming home to the present moment. This is the essence of what psychologists call the “hurry disease”: never really coming home to the present moment. As Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh warns:
“If you can’t learn to enjoy the mundane things in life, you will never truly enjoy what you look forward to.”
Of course, there are sometimes unpleasant situations that we try to hide from and forget about or that we simply don’t want to fully experience. This is called mindfulness therapy ‘experiential avoidance
‘ and everyone does that, but scientific studies show that this is the case By fully experiencing these difficult emotions in the present moment, we can facilitate healing and recovery from trauma.
Stop trying to run away from unpleasant feelings and start staring straight at them. You might be surprised how liberating that can be and how much courage we really have as humans. As Zen teacher Brad Warner says:
“You can always
improve your situation. But you do that by confronting, not by running away.”
I have come home and I am complete as I am.
This affirmation can be repeated every time the ambition to be somewhere else arises, or you try to improve yourself, change something or run away from something – instead you may find yourself elated because you are on your you have arrived at your final destination; now. The only place where happiness can ever be found. That messy and chaotic thing called life. This is an eternal moment, it is never not now, this eternity can be experienced directly and by taking ‘time’ out of the equation you take most of the stress out of the situation.
By slowing down, it’s amazing how easy it is to start enjoying what you’re doing. Like magic, by simply giving your full and undivided attention to what you are doing, you become ‘zenned’, allowing you to find charm and beauty in every detail of your life.
Being in the present also means offering a calm presence in everything you do and whoever you are with. Offering your unhurried presence to children nourishes them and helps them thrive. Offering your unhurried presence to someone is the greatest gift you can give. As Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh says:
“Presence is the greatest gift you can give”
The goal of playing music is not to finish as quickly as possible; the members of the orchestra do not compete to see who can reach the end the fastest. Timing is essential in music, not playing too fast or too slow ensures a harmonious creative expression of the music. Just like in life, by not rushing things you can create harmony and bring a sense of grace to everything you do.
Being mindful doesn’t guarantee that life will always be great, but as Brad Warner says about today’s Zen nature:
“The state of ambiguity – that messy, greasy, confused, confused and terrible situation you are living through right now – is enlightenment itself.”
Athletes don’t rush and can be incredibly calm in stressful situations. The best performers are those who can fully commit to what they do. In fact, athletes often look as if they have “all the time in the world” to perform their complex skills, and sports psychologists call this state “being in the zone” or “finding the flow state.” Being in the zone or flow of life is a talent that you can learn and that can enable you to have the timing of an athlete in everyday life and live life to the fullest in the never-ending unfolding of eternity. now.
Moments that we rush through are the small moments that are part of our lives and deserve our full attention. As John Lennon once warned:
“Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”
Coming home to the present requires more than just mindfulness or paying attention to what’s going on; the missing ingredient in the modern mindfulness practice today is remembering who you are. It’s not enough to just stop and smell the roses, you also have to remember that you are already the sweetest thing.
Remembering that your deepest self transcends time and is always perfectly complete as it is helps you relax and be content wherever you are. There is a very important aspect to your being that cannot be improved upon over time and that will not arrive anywhere other than arriving fully in the now. This can simply be called Consciousness, there is always a luminous witness behind all events that, like the sky, is unaffected by the passing weather of experience. Getting in touch with this clear and radiant nature of ourselves is the goal of meditation and the intention of mindfulness.
We can learn through mindfulness and meditation that contentment and a calm presence are available in every moment, not just the important moments. This gives you the opportunity to not be in a hurry and find peace with every step. By being mindful and living fully in the now, we awaken the trust that the wisdom and compassion we need are always already within us.
Written by Chad Foreman
Chad Foreman is the founder of The Way of Meditation and has been teaching meditation since 2003, determined to bring authentic meditation practices into the lives of millions of people in the modern world. Chad is a former Buddhist monk who lived in a retreat hut for six years and studied and practiced meditation full-time. He now has over twenty years of experience teaching meditation. Chad likes regularly
Meditation retreats on the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Online meditation coachingprovides three online programs – The 21 Day Meditation Challenge to gradually guide people from the basic principles of mindfulness and relaxation to profound states of consciousness.
Breathwork to help manage stress and go deeper into meditation and
The bliss of inner fire This is a Buddhist tantric method to clear energy blockages and connect with the clear light of bliss. You can also get Chad’s free ebook now Insights on the go.