My Favorite exercise for letting go of worry and just living.
This picture for me represents life without worries - the ground
is hot and gravel is hard, my shirt maybe a bit tattered and
the tire rolls crookedly, but so what...
1 - What we Forgot
2 - Living in the now when you choose
3 - How it helps
It's interesting how most of us don't think about going back to
who we used to be. Not necesarily going back but living in the same spirit.
Can you go outside and get wet in the rain, run around like you used to?
Do you ever look at scratches on the floor, feel em, stare, just plain ol be
in awe of something, that seems so everyday nonsense, something not to be
noticed. Yet, you can notice again... a child notices. Before we are schooled,
and taught (this and the other) we in a way... are taught to ignore those
early things... the scratches... the noises... the sounds... . We are re-taught
them but in a different way. A logical scientific way, a robotic way...
a way with no heart or imagination. You can read something, but can you read
between the lines? You can identify something but do you get the feel of it?
The nuances... The things you used to notice before you were told they were nothing.
Most days I worry about what people think of me, how I'm going to stretch
my money and make it last. How many days are left before I'm kicked out
from my parents house. Matter of fact, will I even wake up tomorrow. The list
is infinite. The best cure for this I've found is to simply live in the now.
Like meditation it might be hard at first. But with practice it gets easier,
just take it a few moments at a time. Go outside with no shoes on, I bet you
forgot the feeling of the gravel under your feet. You probably ran around all
day barefoot as a child and felt no pain. But now it hurts, it hurts because
you are feeling again. You are "with it" (not thinking about the rent, the
insurance, the, if your clothes are good enough today) and on and on.
You can start with just 5 minutes at a time, lay on the grass and stare at
the stars. Take a bath instead of a shower, add some bubbles, in fact you
are probably in there with no clothes. Did you forget what bathing felt
like with clothes on as well? You were never allowed to have your coffee
in the bathroom... Pppsshhh. Do it, and fully do it, be the moment.
How this helped me - I started this exercise just a few minutes at a time
and after a while I was able to get into the now (less worries) easier.
For me this was the easier way of stopping the thinking, in a way meditating.
Being in the moment, but also adding the things I did as a child knocked me
into the meditation quicker and deeper. Like when you remember an old smell
that you completely forgot about or and old show, or something simpler like
bathing in the rain. It just puts you into the moment, and if you decide
before hand you aren't going to let the mundane everyday thoughts get to you.
You can master being in the now. A few minutes of bliss is just fine,
it beats having none. And as you do it more, the longer you will go for and
the more appreciation you will havefor life.
So go out there, be in the now, time is perception anyways.
Be in the infinite, a little while can be forever.