What happened to living in the moment?

     We go through life living in the past and future. This wasn't always the case.  The first years of our lives we percieved the world in the present moment. The world had a vibrant and colorful texture to it.  We lived in a state of calm and peace.  The concept of time was unkown to us.  As we grew older, we began to learn to see the world in a different light.  We learned to live in time.  This was when we started to lose our hold onto peace.  The world around us began to look dull.  Experiencing every moment fully is no longer valued.  We started to value the past and future more than this moment.  Gradually, our nature of living in the present moment fell into dormancy.  Later on, we may have experienced glimpses of it on and off.  These glimpses would come at times of creativity and being out in nature.  We may have experienced it through gardening, artwork, hiking in the woods, fishing, watching the rain and the list goes on.  Unfortunately, experiencing the present moment totally in these times were always short lived.

     Yes, time has it's purpose in our daily lives. It's valuable when it comes to work, school and an appointment at the doctor's. The only thing, is that we get trapped into the emotional aspect of time.  We attach ourselves with the negative experiences from the past and negative concepts of the future. We hold grudges, get anxious about the future and so on. 

    The only way that we can start to experience the present moment more often, is to face the emotional aspects of time.  In order to let them go, we have to face them through meditation.  Meditation is when we focus on the present moment totally. 

     Start meditation with breathing excercises.  Tell yourself that you are getting relaxed with every breath. Imagine that every muscle in your body is relaxed.  When your body is totally relaxed, start observing and studying any negative issues that you have about your past or future.  A good example is to meditate on the grudges you hold onto.  Just feel the negative issue without any judgement or thought to it.  Then let it go.  Repeat the steps, if it doesn't happen at first. 

     If you are new to meditation, it's good to start 3 minutes a day.  I also think that it's important to start working on one negative issue at a time.  Take baby steps.  Then you can expand meditation up to 10 minutes a day and work on more than 1 issue.  Eventually, through practice you will have the ability to meditate up to an hour.  You will notice that your mood will liften after every meditation.

   Meditation is a journey to bringing yourself back to living every moment fully.  The more you practice meditation, the more peaceful you will become. Gradually, you will begin to value every moment fully.  You will also start to percieve the world like a newborn baby again.  It will feel like you have awakened from a very long and deep sleep.

Namaste,
Eric