6 ways I’ve learned to live in the present moment
6 ways I’ve learned to live in the present moment:
1. Withhold Judgment. At times I react to people and their responses to me or situations by too quickly applying meaning to what took place. Normally my interpretation is tainted by my past, particularly painful past experiences. So I take my knee-jerk interpretation to be true and my internal response and external actions are based on the story I have concocted in my head. As a result I often expend a lot unnecessary emotional energy. Most times the truth is much different than my fiction. I’m starting to learn to hold off judgment; to patiently allow things to develop and happen before I rush in with Jim’s reactionary interpretation. Sometimes that’s just a matter of thirty minutes. It’s often the case that things aren’t as bad as the story I cooked up in my head. I’m learning not to violate the present moment by projecting false meaning upon it.
2. Don’t Indulge Pain. Some of my feelings seem so powerful that I become trapped in them. When I indulge my emotional pain it seems to strengthen their hold on me. One extreme is denying what I feel, the other is obsessing in it. The middle way is very difficult for me; I’m more accustomed to either shutting down emotionally entirely, or drowning in my pain. I am slowly getting better at managing my emotions. When feelings of hurt, sadness, sorrow or heartache come, I allow myself to fully feel them but then I let them go. I’ve realized that honoring my feelings involves both. Feelings want to come and they also want to go. I can violate my feelings and corrupt the present moment by preventing either the coming or the going.
3. Touch the Sky. There is beauty and goodness all around you; quick, find it!! Discover it within yourself. See it in the deep blue sky stretched out above you, or feel it in the gentle breeze across your face. Experience it in the giving and receiving of love. Lay hold of it in the expression of your unique gifts and passion. Be open to the goodness and beauty that surrounds you in every moment – see it, hear it, touch it, taste it, smell it, feel it, express it…find it. What the present moment holds for you is largely determined by what you are open to and mindful of.
4. Get out of my head. Enough already; quit analyzing every little thing!! There is an entire dimension of life and living that is not experienced or processed through the machinations of your mind. Life is not a math test. Some of the most satisfying and meaningful realities are experienced in and through your spirit, soul, deep inner knowing, intuition, gut, deep feelings, or tacit understanding. At times, embracing the present moment means getting out of your head and listening to and following that other thing.
5. Dance with life. It’s frightening but true – a hell of a lot of life is out of your control. If your way is trying to control things – people and circumstances – you are totally screwed!! The determining factor of your present moment is not simply a matter of what happens to you but your response to it. Life is your dance partner and you can’t control what it does, but the dance step is not complete until you do your thing. In that sense, you actually are in more “control” than you think. It’s not the dance partner who controls your life and you cannot control your dance partner, it’s about the dance itself in which you are an equal participant and partner. I am learning that the great opportunity of my next moment is not a matter of my being able to control or determine what happens in that moment itself but how I dance in it.
6. Be the solution where I am. Everyday we are bombarded with the reality of pain and hardship taking place in every corner of our world. Before radio and television we were much less aware of what was happening outside our local community or city. Sometimes we become so absorbed with suffering on the other side of the world that we forget about the opportunities to alleviate human suffering down the street. You would probably be surprised by the level of emotional, relational, spiritual, physical, and financial need that exists within a 10-mile radius from where you live. Sometimes we miss the opportunity of the present moment, unaware of the need and opportunity right before us along the everyday paths of life.
