Day 29 Living in the present

I found today’s reading really insightful. I realised that I almost never live in the present. I’m often worrying about all the things I need to do in the future or just worrying about how the pain I’m experiencing might affect my future. Come to think of it, I rarely think about how the pain is affecting what I’m doing in the present moment. I worry more about how it will affect my future. I contemplate whether I should have children because the pain might stop me from picking them up and playing with them. I worry that the pain will get even worse and I won’t be able to type anymore. Even when I do things like take a shower, bath or do yoga I’m constantly thinking about what I need to do after I’ve finished the activity. These are relaxing activities for me but my mind is stopping me from enjoying it. The only activity that I can seem to get lost in is running. That’s why I love it so much. This is probably the biggest insight I have had since starting this programme. I’m going to try and focus on the present moment more starting from today. I hope this can be useful for other people too as we continue on this journey.

 

A beautiful and powerful insight. Thank you for sharing this. There are so many gems revealed as folks go through this program.

Coming into moment more fully is like coming home for me some times. Since you want to get more of this, I can recommend some practices I find helpful: soothing, or pleasurable self=touch, feeling my skin affected by rain, wind, cold and hot, music, especially music making of any kind, visually orienting to what is around me, including finding something pleasurable to gaze at, be it a vase or the moon.

 

I've started setting the intention in the morning to find and savor moments of joy throughout the day. I view it as a treasure hunt. Where will I find joy today? Joy is always in the present. It's easy to forget to look. I write about the moments I find in my Gratitude Journal at the end of the day.

It's a never ending mystery to me why humans spend so much time and energy being distracted from the present.

 

Hi Andy, thanks for your suggestions. They are really helpful. I actually stepped outside the other night and saw that it was a full moon and I mist have spent a couple of minutes just staring at it. It’s something I haven’t really paid attention to before, but it made me feel more peaceful in that moment.

 

Hi Ellen, thanks for this insight. I’m definitely going to start doing this as I think it could be really helpful for me, especially in the situation I’m in right now. I’m a teacher in my training year and I have a heavy teaching schedule right now due to many staff members being off with COVID. Most of the teachers at our school feel under a lot of pressure at the minute but what you said just reminded me of all the joyful moments I share with my students each day.

 

I taught school for many years, and it was the children that made that crazy job not only possible for me, but a joy. There is so much given to us from young people, and it was over many years that I finally let this in more and more. What a gift to finally receive their beauty. You're off to a great start!!