I used to spend so much of my life focused on anticipating what was coming, how I was going to feel, what may happen, or how I would react when something changed in my life. I would get caught up in preparing for change that seemed daunting, when in reality, it was a change that I often craved, and propelled me into a stage of life that I was yearning for.
I found that I was never really living in the moment, but simply waiting or moving fast. I found myself moving too fast, not taking breaks, working straight through every task, barely coming up for air throughout my entire day.
A few weeks ago, during a morning meditation, I was guided with the quote “sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.” I sat for a moment, wondering how often I truly just allow myself to be, present, in the moment. How often do I truly let myself breathe, and just be?
We spend so much of our lives trying to rewrite our past, and predict our future, rather than living in the moment. Instead of being present in the time we will never get back. And when we allow ourselves to be present, that time doesn’t slip away as fast. When you begin to think about it, what else is there other than the present moment? Where are we, if we are anywhere, but the now?
Of course, it serves us well to reflect on our past, to learn from the growth, and to set intentions for our future. I’ve spent quite a bit of time reflecting on my 2021, to declare what I want to call in for 2022. When you take time to reflect, rather than rush to conclusions, you allow yourself to become clear.
After about a month of meditation, the word ‘integration’ settled in. We’ve all been through a lot, especially the last two years. But what I started to discover through this morning meditation, is that I’m truly yearning for more presence in my life. More time in the now.
Time to be with all the growth, the lessons, the musings. Time to just be in the moment, rather than rush through it, to the next thing, and forget it even happened.
It’s time to create space to pause. What can that space look like for you?
Maybe it’s time on the beach to watch the sunset. Time to sit at dinner with your family and laugh about traditions that have become so mundane they are comical 30 years later. Time to cherish the beautiful relationships you’ve built in your life that mean more than the things sitting in your closet. Time to be proud of the person you’ve become, and have always been. Time to put your phone on do not disturb and disconnect from the outside world, and go within.
Maybe presence is all about creating your own time.
Presence looks different for all of us. That’s the beauty of it. It doesn’t have to be defined by me, your partner, or your best friend. YOU get to define what presence looks like for you, in your life. You get to decide how to choose it, how to create it, and how to change it. You are the creator of your life and how you get to live it.
So, I ask you, can you choose to pause in the present? There may be no greater gift you can give yourself.
