The Gift of The Present

 

The past is about regret and the future is about worry — all we have is now…

The past is gone. You might want to relive it, or you might regret it, but one thing is certain — you can’t change it. The future might inspire us, or it might frighten us. You can plan for it, but you cannot act in it.

The one place you can act is the present moment. Everything that you will create, everything that you will accomplish in life, hinges upon what you think and do each moment. If you can be your best in the moment, instead of regretting the past or worrying about the future, then life can really open up to you.

The past is where regret comes alive. The future is where worry hangs out. When we’re in anxiety, all we can think of is what might happen in the future.

When we talk about the moments when we feel most connected with our lives, they are generally moments when we’ve done some slowing down, some sort of quiet empty stillness when we are just here, in this moment. We are not worried about our inbox, or Friday night’s plans, or that your kid is going to spill something. Most of life, our brain is in all these different places at the same time.

Modern life throws lot of pressures and distractions at us. So getting present “in the moment” is really hard. If we apply some techniques that have been around for thousands of years and work with the rituals of the world, we can start to connect, at a deeper level, with what we’re doing.

These techniques involve routine, ritual and rhythm. Whatever type of work you do, there is an art to it. There is an art to being a Mom, to being a salesperson, to being a writer or a trash collector. Many people in the modern world have lost this. But the physical setting, the tools and equipment that you use are part of how you do your work in the world.

Your physical environment affects your interior life -if you have too much clutter, if your car is filled with trash. There is a deep connection with your sense of peace, your sense of who you are and what you’re doing on a daily basis. Begin with the basic stuff and get rid of all the clutter at your desk so that it’s a clean space. When you sit down, you can clearly see what you do and appreciate that it matters. Bringing some order to our work space sets the tone.

We might feel the pressure to hustle 24/7, but nature tells us to do something different and, if we listen, we might be surprised at the results. There is a rhythm built in to creation. If we go every day, all day, never off, phone always on, always working, always answering emails, always answering text and never taking a break, we are violating the fundamental rhythms of creation.

For thousands of years, people have understood that a rhythm of work and rest and play, sleep and then being awake are rhythms that make you pay if you violate them.

Despair is when you look into the future and all you see is an endless repeat of work. We need to be liberated from despair.

Take a day a week and treat it different from all the other days. Turn off your cell phone. Ask yourself what feeds your soul — go do that. It’s shocking how much it can transform your life. As soon as you start to do one day different than the others, you will begin to get so much more done in so much less time. When you switch off for a bit, you might even get more done.

For many people in the modern world — you’re here, you’re there, you’re all over the place. You rarely feel like you’re actually tasting the depth of your own life. If we want to be the best version of ourselves, we have to respect nature’s rhythms and take some time away from work sometimes.

Give yourself the gift of finding the craft in whatever you do, embrace rituals and respect the rhythms that connect nature, the world and you.