For me and I am sure for many others it has been wonderful to enjoy being with family and friends relaxing over Easter buns and chocolate and not thinking about much at all especially not work and the next task, the next must thing you have to do. Just being there has been great, to relax the self-imposed reins of constant striving and relentless pursuit.
How do you slow down and just be? For me it’s when I sail and the only thing to focus on is my job on the boat which may be to release the… jib sheet when we go about. It has been delightful these last few days being out on Port Phillip Bay with friends sailing on their trailable. The sun on our backs the yacht scooting along at 6 knots, the wind in our hair, many fishing boats at anchor all around us, now that’s contentment. Another way for me just to be present in the moment is jogging.
Psychologists’ are now treating people for distraction disorder where people simply cannot focus on a single task for longer than a few minutes. How many of us whilst we are watching TV, constantly check our Facebook, Instagram, the latest news? They are saying that because of this it takes 127 days to change a habit instead of 27.
Eckhart Tolle writes about our egoist state and our constant need to validate ourselves, a good example being the need to constantly post our lives minute by minute on Facebook. Or in our conversations. How many times do you catch yourself saying I did, I have, I know? He also says that is a natural human state, we just need to be aware of it.
He teaches that we in the Western world are very identified with doing, achieving and having but we are not very good at being, which is what old people do very well, especially in Eastern cultures where they are highly regarded. Eckhart teaches that we are very identified with form, in other words how we look physically and what we have materialistically. He teaches that form will fall away our looks and our health will deteriorate and all that is left is being and presence. If we can accept this and learn to be and feel our presence through our lives, we can be happier and more at peace with ourselves.
He explains it a lot better than me and his books are The Power of Now and a New Earth. I highly recommend them. Reading his books really helped me and are helping me learn how to just be in the moment and use that philosophy to get through some of the tough times many of us experience like job loss, relationship problems and money challenges.
So whatever you do to just be in the moment do it as often as you can. Just let it be