Be fully present in life
What if I write an entire blog post with my eyes closed?
This is exactly what happened last week as I was healing from yet another Lasek surgery. You know you are passionate about something when you can’t stand another second, a day or moment without doing it. For me, it’s writing and as I healed I was determined to write and I did just that so please enjoy this post.
As I sat up in my bed with my eyes shut with the warmth of my Mac book on my lap I began to feel myself get excited as I begin to type. Actively listening and actually enjoying the clicking and clacking of the keys of my laptop I began to wonder what I should write about.
Like most bloggers, we think, test, research and strategically plan the topics of our posts and this time I had decided not to write about my eye surgery saga but to actually just type and see what messages naturally surfaced. As I submitted to this creative exploration, words began to decorate the space between my eyes and mind. Words ironically all beginning with P began to fly about giving me insight internally to what I was feeling. Words like, passion, pain, pleasure, philosophy.
After the 4 minutes of speeding dating with various words, one bold headline almost like a bumper sticker popped into view and didn’t go away.
“Be fully present in life!”
Wow, I thought to myself, is God trying to send me a message. Laughing out loud of the notion, I continued to write about this notion of being fully present. It
obviously was some kind of reality check and rather than ignore the message, I decided to confront the notion. I, like many of us, find it an ongoing challenge to be truly 100% fully present in everything that I do, especially at this time of my life as an entrepreneur.
Is being fully present almost impossible in today’s day and age because we never stop to do just that? In the darkness, alone, forced to shut off from the world and enjoy my greatest pleasure, I realized what I was enjoying wasn’t only the act of writing but it was the experience of being completely whole-heartedly fully present.
Why is being fully present so important?
So much of our interactions in life, at home, at work and even with your children as parents is in a “half there and half somewhere else mode” The “half there, half somewhere else” approach to life and our experiences is part of the reason why so many of us don’t actualize our full potential at anything.
We have to stop multi tasking and must start valuing the notion of sometimes less is more in our lives, in our relationships, in our communities and in our careers. If we begin to give our undivided attention to one area at a time and begin to approach each area of our lives in a fully present manner, progress will be increased.
It shouldn’t take darkness and eye surgery to get me to realize this in my own life but it did. And because of this insight, I now have made the commitment to slow down and enjoy a mind body state of fully presentness with everything I do.
My eyes shut with subtle pain the insight I was able to garner in this darkness was so much greater than the words I can share while they are open. There is profound truth in darkness and the message was an example of what happens when you are fully present in life. There is a beauty and nakedness about living in the moment. Try it, you just might like it.
Here are a few Practical Tips to Get you Started
Start every activity by centering yourself first. Taking 3 or 4 slow, deep breaths before starting anything helps bring all of your attention to the present activity. If you find your attention wandering, breathe deeply again and bring it back.
Stop checking e-mail multiple times per day, set times for reading and responding. For example, I wait until noon to check my email and use my mornings for readings. Let your phone go to voice mail, if possible, and return phone calls during a specific time.
Clutter free your mind. It is said that Einstein wrote everything down to keep his mind as open and free as he could. Do the same, creativity cannot blossom in a cluttered brain. Make lists. I have a huge flip chart where I jot down priorities for the day. Get organized and create quick lists.
If you have to, unplug Your Internet connection. Surfing, Facebook and Google sometimes can get in the way of quiet along time. Once a day, find the time for bonding with yourself, without any distractions.
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