Alo’ha: breathing the present magic of life

An amazing thing happens every time I go surfing… I rediscover the magic of life. I feel the magic of life. I live the magic of life. Surfing breathes such a strong and refreshing breath of life into my being, that it is impossible not to emerge a little dizzy and dazed, but full of this new energy of rebirth. It’s uplifting and wonderful. It truly is Alo’ha, which in Hawaiian literally means: “the breath of life”.

In his latest book ‘Aleph’, Paulo Coelho speaks of the magic of life being the present. Time, as not being measurable but essentially purely livable. The concept of ‘living time’:

“In magic - and in life - there is only the present moment, the now. You can't measure time the way you measure the distance between two points. 'Time' doesn't pass. We human beings have enormous difficulty in focusing on the present; we're always thinking about what we did, about how we could have done it better, about the consequences of our actions, and about why we didn't act as we should have. Or else we think about the future, about what we're going to do tomorrow, what precautions we should take, what dangers await us around the next corner, how to avoid what we don't want and how to get what we have always dreamed of.”

An amazing concept. That we humans waste so much time in the past and future that we do not live in the present. This was brought to my attention through two things. The instant ‘in the moment’ sensation I get from surfing and also by contemplating on how much time we spend not pursuing our dreams and goals.

Imagine you live in a room where on the floor there is a huge blank canvas. The canvas represents your hopes and dreams, things that you need to put some effort, energy and enthusiasm to work on, but through procrastination, fear and lack of organisation you fail to undertake. You leave the canvas bare, you walk around it, cover it, move it around the room, on a daily basis, but fail to get started on it. You fail to invest time in your own masterpiece. Time of course being the present moment.

The blank canvas of the room, is the purpose of our souls. A beautiful, unique canvas, is the outward manifestation that our souls work to fulfill their purpose. It can be just started or complete, but it is also a motivation and inspiration for others to complete the work of their own lives. But, the trick is, we wait for the right time and moment to begin and work on our masterpiece. We contribute our time and energy to meaningless tasks that in turn, do not satisy or inspire, or make us really live the magic of life.

Similarly, in surfing, you have a moment to catch a wave, or let it pass. Take a chance, and go somewhere new, or be stuck on an ocean, floating. My board is my canvas, the ocean, endless opportunity of life.

Or as the Hawaiians say: “Ku Hoe He’e Nalu” – stand up, paddle, surf. In my personal, spiritual interpretation it looks a little like: ‘stand tall, work hard, catch your dream’. I think we all need to experience the magic of Alo’ha (living in the present) so we can fulfill our soul’s purpose and create experience of happiness.

Copyright © SoulSurfer 26 November 2012 at 11.15am

Living the moment...

A moment is something that cannot be captured or contained...just enjoyed. This is the realisation I have come to over the past few weeks. Yet, despite their lack of tenacity, moments are important. Moments are pinnacle points in life; ones we look on with either pleasant reminiscence or hasty omission. They are like the peaks and troughs on a heart rate monitor; the defining moments in a life which otherwise would otherwise make it a boring and lifeless existence.

Opportunists say to “live in the moment” while realists say “moments are fleeting”. Which do we do? Do we just keep living for the next best moment, while proudly nursing the scares of the bad ones? Or do we long for stability, and normalisation, believing that both good and moments will come again, so life is really just mediocre?

I’ve done something new in the last few weeks, in just really trying to experience the feeling of each moment. Just really being there, observing without judgement, how I feel, what I do, where each moment takes me next. And trying to breath positive energy into every experience. Living the moment, having an experience, taking the good with the bad, and just being happy it happened.  

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened" is my favourite Dr Seuss quote. How often we don’t realise things are not happening to us, we are making them happen. My best surfing analogy in this case would be an awesome moment I experienced two weeks ago. I went out for a paddle, struggled to paddle in for a while, until I aligned myself to just having fun, and stumbled on an awesome rip. A rip that literally pulled me in so fast, that I suddenly found myself being pulled out to sea; no paddling required. I had a few seconds to turn around and catch a monster of a wave that I had been struggling for so long. I guess all along I had been making it happen, but when the moment came, it was better, brighter and more awesome that I could imagine.

So I think how often, without positive energy and directional thinking, we miss the opportunities of moments coming along and sweeping us of our feet? How often do we miss out on capitalising on the moment due to sheer ignorance and boredom with life.

I finish with my favourite quote from Paulo Coelho about magic moments: “The magic moment is the moment when a “yes” or a “no” can change our whole existence. Every day, we try to pretend that we do not see that moment, that it does not exist, that today is the same as yesterday and that tomorrow will be the same too.”

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