The greatest and yet simplest gift that our mindfulness practice brings is a connection to the present moment. When we inhabit the present moment, we can open ourselves to all of its possibilities, its opportunities, the full experience of that moment in time. When we release our attachment to our busy thinking mind, our past regrets and future worries, we can simply be in the Now. In this moment lies the possibility for peace and joy; in this moment lies an opportunity to grow and heal.
My second meditation on Insight Timer has reached the head of the queue and is now live! Be Here Now is a practice that begins with awareness of your breath and your surroundings, and then it guides you on a scan of the body to help you connect to the full experience of each moment. I invite you to explore this practice whenever you find yourself distracted or disconnected, feeling stress or anxiety, or simply in need of respite from the busyness of your day.
Being here now helps you to cultivate a sense of peace and calm that will allow you to navigate whatever arises on your path.
It’s easy to get so caught up in the day-to-day challenges of our life that we forget to open our eyes to the myriad gifts that surround us. It’s easy to let our attention become so sharply focused on the future and what we want to acquire, achieve, accomplish, that we neglect to look in the periphery of our present and acknowledge what we already have. At any given time on our path we could be standing triumphantly on a peak, mired in a deep valley, or walking steadily somewhere in between. No matter where we find ourselves, whether the path seems clear or hazy, it is exactly the right time to practice gratitude.
Meditation has been an integral part of my life for a long time. It has helped me navigate some treacherous waters – acute illness, family tragedy, profound loss. It has also been there in times of joy and triumph, granting me a sense of balance and perspective and deep gratitude. To anyone who asks (and probably a few who didn’t!), I extol the virtues of meditation, its myriad gifts and benefits, and all the ways we can incorporate mindfulness into everyday life so that we spend more time inhabiting the present moment, with all its possibilities.
After a week of sun and heat, it is rainy and cool today. I love days like this. Soft days. Days where we can be quiet and simply listen to the rain falling outside our window; days where we can soften the edges of our expectations, give ourselves permission to slow down and savour each moment as it comes. What treasures will we find when we pay attention to the present moment? What joys await us when we pause our busyness long enough to appreciate the simple beauty of raindrops, the way they nourish the world around us, the symphony they play as they land upon our rooftops? Sir Francis Bacon reminded us that “We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake.” Let yourself pause today to appreciate the simple joys that surround you, the stars in your hands and the raindrops falling softly on your head.