Being present in the moment

I had a sort of epiphany. Maybe each moment is perfect, and we are always in the right place at the right time.

In yoga, we are always reminded to “be present to the moment” which in itself is a task because it requires thinking about the past, how you’ve been ‘present’ before, and the future about how we can create that feeling again. Our minds race like high speed freight trains on tracks, always going one way or another, but never stopping at one station.

I think being present in the moment is really living in what the experience of it is, physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually. When we experience bad or negative emotions, we desperately try to dissipate them, and when we experience positive emotions, we desperately cling onto them for dear life, hoping to hold onto the feeling forever.

Forever. There is only present, really. I like the saying that “it is the darkest before the dawn”. You must see through the darkest hour to reach the lightest one. There can be no selectivity. So I think a person has to really deeply experience the emotion, the state, the present they are in, to be able to progress to the next moment. The key to remember is to be present to the moment, but have no attachment to it, as the next moment will come. Maybe this is what Buddhism teaches. That we cannot cling to the good or bad memories too long. I think this is looking with kindness on yourself – that you are not the sum of your good or your bad, but just a free being, being the best in a moment of time.

SoulSurfer © 28 November 2011 at 10.36pm

A commitment to being better...but not 'the best'

It is commitment that makes us appreciate how important our dreams are. We must stay committed to our dreams, even when we believe we know how to do what we love perfectly. When you believe you are good at what you love to do and not ‘the best’, you allow change and improvement to occur. You must stay in the flow of always believing that you are moving towards your goal, but never attaining it. When you attain a goal, or believe you are the best you can be, you can become complacent and bored. Inspiration gets stifled, and ego comes into play.

The only way to keep creativity and inspiration flowing in life is to be committed to being better and improving Self, but never attaining ‘the best’. ‘The best’ does not exist, because there can always be better. This is how life has evolved, because someone has found a better, faster, quicker way of doing things.

Life flows when we don’t think with ego, but with love and inspiration; continually looking for new sources, ideas and insights. Personally, I am committed to believing I am always in the process of being a better surfer. I believe I am a good surfer, but not the best. For there will always be waves that make me better, but none that will make me the best.

Copyright © SoulSurfer 21 November 2011 at 8.44am

Inspiration is love at work

Someone once said, that at the end of life, each person will be judged not by what they did, but how much love they put into what they did. I don’t like the word “judged” as it is so final and harsh, but I do share the sentiment.

During yoga class, a question arose from our teacher “Can we put love into what we are doing every moment?”. Even during a torturous yoga pose, which is meant to be relaxing and releasing, can we manage to send out love? When we do the most mundane things, like catch the bus, buy our morning paper or even write a routine Tuesday morning email – can we put love into the moment?

Love seems to be something that is only reserved for those close to us and those we care about. It is often rationed out and segregated to those people and things we judge as being worthy of it.

But I think love needs to be not only a daily, but constant practice. Every moment needs to be about sending out love. When we engage with the moment we are in and add love to it, we experience a surge of inspiration and ultimately love again. I think inspiration is love at work. When you are working with love; living, breathing, exercising, eating love, you feel inspired in your life’s goals and on purpose.

Think of Kelly Slater who has so much to live up to. He has said he enjoys nothing more than to track a swell and go after it. He has abandoned important career-changing competitions, just to go after his passion for surfing, and find inspiration to continue surfing. Love leads to inspiration, and inspiration always finds love.

I believe it is a love for what he does and the inspiration he gets from it, that keeps my grandfather, at age 84, working in his beloved job. The inspiration he gets from his job fuels the fire of the passion for it. He always devotes a 100% to his work, because he is truly doing what he loves.

In our lives it is not easy to always feel love for everything we do. We may experience more love and inspiration from one thing and less from another. But like Kelly Slater, we must learn to chase our own swells – really chase the things that inspire us and that we can devote love to. We must give love to everything and see where we get the most love back. That, right there, is your swell – your life’s passion.

Written by Copyright © SoulSurfer 14 November 2011 at 10.35pm

The magic moment

I had to repost this wonderful blog entry by Paulo Coelho, as it really is the essence of appreciating life...

“You have to take risks”- he said.

“We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

“Every day, God gives us the sun–and also one moment in which we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy.
“Every day, we try to pretend that we haven’t perceived that moment, that it doesn’t exist–that today is the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow.

But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover that magic moment.

It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting our front-door key in the lock.

It may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us.

But that moment exists–a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.”

Courtesy of Paulo Coelho http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2011/11/07/the-magic-moment-2/