Monday, May 17, 2010

Present Moment Awareness....

I just watched a cute romantic comedy. I love the ability they have to transplant me in another place. It's easy to feel as though I am on their journey, feeling and experiencing what they are. I get that rush of motivation to make an adventure happen, but then of course life and all its obligations and responsibilities get in the way, and I am reminded of how much laundry I have to do, or how messy the kitchen is. The kids of course have full time jobs with school and there seems to be no room in our life for adventure. This seems so much the truth that I can come up with many more excuses or reasons to prove how busy life is, so much that fun gets put on the back burner and even sometimes throw away all together. What is the importance of an adventure? Why do we crave that so much? Why does the journey sometimes matter more than the destination? Living life to its fullest is the journey, and the destination at the same time. Each moment presents itself as available and open. We are the ones that fill it up with so much to do. One of the lines in the movie that made me think went something like this: You should kiss your love like its the first time you've ever kissed them, and also like its the last. I think it would be grand if each moment was like that. Appreciating and enjoying each and every moment like its the best kiss you've ever had. And if it does not feel that way, if each moment feels rather quite the opposite most of the time, then Houston we have a problem and then it is time to change it until it is mostly like the best kiss in the world. Alot of the times what needs to change is not our circumstances, but our attitudes. To be open and willing to change and accept something new into the moment. Even if it makes you feel uncomfortable. Oh boy, does it ever get uncomfortable sometimes! So much that I would like to have a time machine and go back even just a moment or two and erase what I said or did to create something completely different! But of course that is not possible, so this is where forgiveness and acceptance come into play and prove to be very useful. Forgive myself for sounding like an idiot...forgive myself for actually being an idiot, or thinking that I am an idiot in the first place! Accept myself for who I am and love myself no matter what. Be tender and compassionate with myself. This is what can give me the courage to invite that moment into my consciousness. Allowing room for mistakes and doing my best to learn from them is very important. Back to this present moment thing....it can be so challenging. We have everything in the world to distract us from the moment with TV, computers, cell phones. We can essentially with all of these tools live our lives in our heads instead of actually living life with our bodies. I am learning so many news things right now about different ways of living and one of the things is the Tao Te Ching. Some people attribute that collection of 81 poems to one man Lao-tzu, but others believe it to be a compilation of many authors. It is a collection of poems written to advise us how to be good people and how to live a good life and give back to others making this life better for all among many other teachings. One of the ways the Tao Te Ching does this is to teach us to get out of our heads and back to nature, or back to whats natural. Technology obviously has advanced us..and in many ways it has been an excellent way to help and change the world for the better. In other ways it has taken us away from ourselves and the connections we have with one another and the present moment and caused more to be stressed about, feeding chaos and making us feel like we have to go go go all the time. We must move as fast as our emails. That's exhausting trying to keep up with that. We are teaching ourselves how to produce more and more, but receive less and less of what really matters. In one hand technology can get things done very fast which ideally will free up more of our time to do more of what we want, but it seems like its leaving us with less time but more to do. Or that could be a result of the pressures and demands of our culture. People want to make money, money buys things, technology saves time, people can do more, lets expect more and make more money with the idea that it will eventually allow us to take a break and reap the rewards of all our hard work. Meanwhile, each moment is ticking by almost painfully, and our bodies are the ones that take the bullet for that, because our brains love love love to do what it does best which is constantly run and think. This is what my brain does constantly. I use to think that I was such a vivid, constant dreamer at night because some bigger power had something important to share about my existence. Now I am understanding it is just my monkey mind or as my professor puts it " a puppy with out a leash". It certainly feels that way...that it has control over me, and not the other way around. That is probably where the discipline comes in. I have a toddler so I can completely relate to that analogy. He certain has more control over me instead of me over him :( But I work for that to change the older he gets and the more he understands. HA! There it is! The older I get, the more I will understand! So I can forgive myself for not knowing everything right now! Including how to take full advantage of this moment right now, which I sort of feel that this moment right now I am taking full advantage of it, and doing something useful for my growth and development and enjoyment! I feel like I may have a little less time to learn all of this though as I do have three children to raise and to teach! No pressure there. {bites lip}. Anyway...point being...live more, get out of your head...and enjoy living while its giving:)