I was in the airport this week and as I stopped at a concession stand to buy some water, I saw the second edition of “O, The Oprah Magazine.” I’d heard a lot of good things about it and really liked the cover story – “Live In The Moment! It’s our mission this summer.” That caught my attention!
I was at the airport because I’d been home helping my mom get my dad into a nursing home, a pretty emotional experience. So when I opened the magazine and saw the quotes that the first article, “Live in the Moment”, began and ended with, their truth had special meaning for me. No matter what your life’s circumstances right now, I hope they will speak to you also. They are very important truths.
- “It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth – and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up – that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it {were} the only one we had.” Elisabeth Kubler”Ross
- “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have.” Eckhart Tolle
These truths truly ARE truths! It is then up to each one of us to decide what we are going to do with them.
So I share with you several suggestions from that article, by Sarah Ban Breathnach, to give you some ideas about how you can in fact live more fully in the moment.
- Summer is here – delight in it! Experience, appreciate and revel in Mother Nature’s sensations: freshly mowed grass, a concerto of crickets, a juicy peach, kids laughing, start twinkling.
- Take a half-hour walk with a friend and leave your cell phone at home.
- Do one thing at a time. Don’t make the bed whiled brushing your teeth, check your voice mail while eating lunch or half listen to the kids while glancing at the news.
- Forgive someone who has hurt you. Brooding – nursing old wounds, indulging in comparisons, anticipating the worst – robs the present of its joy.
- Tell three people you love that you love them – right now. This moment is always the best one in which to express your care for others.
- Act as if you are known for your inner calm: Greet everyone you meet today with a smile.
- This moment IS your life. It is the process of living, the journey, that is life itself, and we often wish away our lives by focusing only on what tomorrow could, should, would bring. Live today as if there were no future. The only time is now.
- Do one fun, spontaneous thing that makes you laugh at yourself – dance alone, blast a CD during your morning commute, eat a lollipop in public.
- Look into the eyes of every person you are with. Practice listening attentively.
- No matter how difficult your circumstances, think of one thing you’re grateful for, then say it aloud.
- Any happiness and peace you experience, you bring to yourself through your attitude. Reframe your present by finding one thing to feel joy about right now.
There are a zillion ways you can experience living in the moment. It has the power to bring you much joy and inner peace. It has the power to shift the way you live your life. All it takes is your conscious attention. Are you ready? Are you willing?
I close with another quote by the Scottish author and poet George MacDonald.
- “Give yourself a day of doing nothing to balance the discordant days of doing too much. Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness.”