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Let's See if I have the time, i say to myself.....
What a concept it is - TIME--
We are always counting the minutes, the hours, the seconds. either wishing for more time or at times wishing time would stand still or wishing we could go back in time. It is something regardless of whether we wear a watch or not - something that is constantly in the back of our minds.
How many of us feel like time is flying and wish we had more time to do things. We go through our lives counting the moments, but do we really savor the moments.
I'm a planner by nature - always planning ahead, anticipating what could happen and planning for that just in case and if you think about it, i'm creating my own future through that, i'm not really enjoying the actual moment - and then take it one step further - how much of it is about us controlling our lives. We know in theory certain things are beyond our control - but our obsession with time is about control - it's about power...if we manage this, we can have some autonomy about it....rather than just allowing certain things to unfold and enjoy the process.
I recently finished Mitch Albom's The Time Keeper . In his fictional story he writes about the concept of time and how much control we want to have over OUR TIME. The book sits with me and really spoke to the heart. How many times have u said to yourself, i want to just be....i know i say it - and i also know that i can BE it.
The book made me stop and really look at my self inwardly and check and see do i really make most of the time that i have. Co-incidently while i was reading The Time Keeper, one of the bedtime stories I read to my son last week was called Milton's Secret. It started of as a book about bullying but the essence of the story was really about being in the now - and praciticing the now - What is the now you may ask? The now is not worrying about what tomorrow brings and what happened yesterday. It is being in what is happening right now. How do you practice the now? By reminding ourselves of who we are/where we are and what we inherently are. Part of not being in the present moment is about the various emotions that accompany us while we are dreaming somewhere in the future or reminising the past. Emotions like fear rule us, or emotions such as anger, sadness, sometimes happiness - all these things can cloud us and as the cloud us, it prevents us from really savoring the moments that are staring at us in the face.
We imagined a light inside of us and that light eliminating any negative feelings that could prevent us from being in the now - and reminding ourselves that everytime we find ourselves getting away from the present, feeling the presence of the light within us. It was a simple exercise that we did together, but yet very profound.
There are always 101 millions thing to do and honestly those lists will never end. We have to be the one to put a stop to them. We have to say to ourselve "Okay -for today that is all I can do." If we spent so much time planning or creating or worrying about what is to come and how it is to come, so much of what is actually happening to us gets skipped. There is a saying- "it is not the number of breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away." Do we really do that? We are always in a rush. We rush to get our kids to school, we rush to get to work, we rush at work to meet deadlines and jump to the daily demands that our work puts on us, we rush to get home from work only to repeat to same thing again the next day. Everything is on a schedule and every thing about making sure we have enough time in the day.
What if we woke up and imagined we had all the time in the world? Would it make a difference as to how we approached our daily tasks. There would be more quality in the form of our work, there would be more quality in our day to day relationships. I have to say doing this exercise has been very helpful - it makes me slow down my pace yet be productive and most of all it makes me present.
A journaling exercise that keeps me centered and allows me to be present is the following
"What would make me happy if i had all the time and money in the world " Try doing the exercise and you will see that it is most simple things that bring us pleasure, that bring us more centered - and if we actually take the time to practice more of that - how much happier would we really be. Another excercise is repeatedly saying to yourself "I have all the time in the world." Affirmations work wonders and this one has been very helpful to me....it gets me to focus on now.
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Buddha
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