Just a bit I saw in the Sunday Sun by Paul Wilson and thought I would share.
So many of us think we'll be be happy in the future if we attain a certain goal. But the real art of living lies in savouring the here and now."I'll be able to relax and take it easy," he said, closing the door of the three-car garage, "as soon as we've paid off the mortage."
"And I'll be happy", she said, ' when I lose 10 Kilograms."
It seems everyone is waiting for something.
problem is, if you're waiting for the time to come when you'll be happy, healthy, thin, or in a satisfying relationship, you're missing the boat. the only opportunity you get to enjoy anything is right now. Not in 10 minutes time - that's fantasy. Not 10 minutes ago - that's memory.
Just now. so if you want to feel love, joy, happiness, passion, equanimity or contentment, look for them in this present moment.
There was a time when no one needed to point this out to you. as a child you'd be fully occupied by the most mundaine things: a beetle, a matchbox, a peice of string. You wern't hinking about what you had to do tomorrow or what you failed to do yesterday - you were absorbed by the present.
As an adult you experince something similar when you're involved in an intensly physical activity, or you lose yourself in something you love.
at times like these you feel more alive, centered and at peace. You're more capable and aware.
Millions acheive this through a practice known as mindfulness. While there is a meditation method by the same name, the real benefits occur away from the meditation room. This is the everyday art of living in the present.
You can sample what it feels like now.
If you withdraw your attention from the outside world for a moment, and bring it to rest on the words in this sentence - letting go of the need to analyse or compare, and just accepting what is - you may begin to sense yourself in the very centre of the reading experience.
that's all you have to do.
You become even more centered and peaceful when you approach whatever you're doing with a sense of naivety and discovery. If tea is to be drunk, you drink it as if this was the first time you'd ever tasted tea. If shirts are to be ironed, words to be written, love to be made, leaves to be raked, or barrackin for the Tigers, you attend to them as if you are doing them for the very first time.
although simple, learning to live in the present is the single most important life-improvement practice you can master.
Sort of like smokin a joint hey ox
have a nice day people's
