Being Present – 1

The year is 2022 and I cannot count how many mornings I’ve woken up to. Every day, within the same window of time, my eyes open to a new day – a new lease of 24 hours to do everything I wanted. I feel abundance in this! This is such a sweet deal – everyday a new set of 24 gifts, each lasting one hour and that gift is TIME. When this POV sinked in, I immediately had to make the most of this short life. It arose in me a sincere desire to use talents I know I’ve always had, develop skills I always wished for, and SPEND MY GIFTS like there is only TODAY to live.

I’m 29 and the brain’s memory tells me that’s a looong time to have paraded this Earth. A looong time to have done a lot many things to be proud of. That’s not always the case, though. Welcome regret. Each time I think of my age, I not only think of how far I’ve come, but also how much further I COULD HAVE gone. I think we have a highly developed habit of wishful thinking. Regret is a sad, heavy, discouraging word, so I choose to say WISHFUL THINKING. To sustain to remember this POV of the 24 GIFTS is tricky because of this habit of wishful thinking. To accomplish things, we are required to be PRESENT where we are. I’ll pause here for a moment because this is barely understood. What does one mean by ‘being present’, or ‘live in the moment’ or something more profound like – ’eternity lies in this moment’? I’ll pass on that last one for now, but Being Present really means not being CAUGHT UP in oneself.

Often I catch myself in the middle of a mind-takeover – a takeover by my mind into its autonomous world of fantasies, wishful thinking, self-pity, pride, violence and also its varied biases, distortions and any another emotion one finds on the chart. It’s one thing to be aware of these facts and regulate them judiciously, its quite another to experience a mind-takeover.

Whenever I wake up from inside this mental drama, I find myself back in the PRESENT. Here are few experiences to know when YOU return to the present from a mind-takeover:

• greater sensory awareness of surroundings
• quietness of the mind (sometimes feels like blankness)
• a release of facial muscular tension
• better sense of navigating one’s feelings
• re-contextualizing one’s circumstances into a ‘bigger picture’ (job becomes a part of career, an hour becomes part of the twenty four in a day, a quarrel becomes part of a greater, more meaningful relationship)
• (one notices myriad other transformations through keen observation)

My interest in Being Present goes far back since I was in school. When it all started, the sense of spirituality was muddled. Life took its own course and today I’m able to vocalize, contextualize and express this qualitative inner life. By learning to be patient and accepting, life has been smoother. In no way is it not a storm! But all I’m saying is it could always have been much worse.

So have you also thought about time and mortality? Is a sense of urgency running your life? Do you feel time is running out and you’re still not sure what you’re here to do?

I would begin by Being Present.

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