Being In The Moment

A friend and I were coaching together for a while and I noticed he had a reoccurring theme in our coaching sessions.  He was constantly looking for ways of staying in the moment. Be more present, or be Zen. But his interpretation of being present was mostly achieved one way.

 

He would schedule time, in a quiet area by himself, sit down in silence, and meditate to stop the constant thoughts in his head. He was gratefully able to reach that state of complete relaxation, presence, and feeling fully alive. But not long after he would step out of that place and go back into the “World”, it felt like that relaxed feeling would disappear. The thoughts would come back and it was back to square one.

 

It made me realize that a lot of us have a tendency to find ways to bring us back in the moment but sometimes we are limited at ways of doing it, or those ways are a bit too complex. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to be in the moment every minute of every day? I would love to be able to do everything in complete presence, but the reality of things is that we have an ego and we get out of that presence. We get distracted, we get side tracked. That’s life!

 

It dawned on me that it’s great to be able to have a specific way that works for us, to bring us back. Like being able to take the time away, being silent and meditating. But sometime we don’t always have the time to go in that room. Life doesn’t always allow us to do so.

 

So we have to try and find other ways that work. We have to work with tools that can easily be used anywhere. That is the goal; to be in the moment any chance possible. Not just in that room by ourselves.

 

That made me wonder of possible ways of being in the moment and a few ideas came to mind. For example: Something as simple as, taking a minute, even a few seconds of your day, and just noticing your breath. How often do you notice your breath in a day? Just take 10 seconds and focus your attention on your breath. Did you do it? See; right there; that is an instant way of being in the moment. When you are fully aware of what you are doing at this exact minute and putting your full attention on it, THAT is being in the moment. You are now fully present. You are not thinking of the past, you are not thinking of the future; you are just here.

 

Become aware of how your clothes feel on your body right now. Become aware of your limbs. Become aware of your heart beat. What do you notice? THAT is being in the moment. Take 30 seconds and just be aware of where you are and what surrounds you. THAT is being present. Listen to that song you really love and really notice what it does to you. What do you notice now? Do you feel the vibration in your body? Do you hear the song in your heart? What does it do for you? Being aware of THAT is being in the moment.

 

The idea is to slow down your thoughts and try to focus on your senses. What do you hear, taste, see, smell, and feel? Just like a child discovering something for the first time. You are using your senses, you are being aware of them; you are being present. Let me ask you this. What are you thinking about right now? Ha! You’re now in the moment.

 

Final tool… Gratitude. Another great tool to bring you back to the moment if you fall off track, is taking a minute to be grateful. In this very moment; what are you grateful for? Take that minute, stop to notice what good you have in your life right now. That is a very powerful form of being present.

 

The more we practice it, the easier it will be to achieve it. I love that! We already have all the tools in the world to be in the moment at any time. And the best part is… it’s easy! Very power stuff. We don’t have to put all this extra effort in scheduling things all the time to stay present. Though I must say it sure is great to do so and I recommend everyone to take time for themselves as much as they can. But let’s be realistic, we need to balance it out. Do the thing that work for you but also remember the simple stuff that works just as well.

 

In conclusion, at this very moment, I am truly grateful in having the technology, and capabilities to be able to share this blog post with you. And I am also grateful for your support in reading it. So thank you!

 

Until next time,

Annie Gélinas-Olive