Popcorn for the Soul – Back to the now – again!
Hey there beautiful Souls! How are you? It’s September, and time to get back from the holiday mode :-)? By the way, how was your holiday? Did you rest? Recharge your batteries?
And did you enjoy spending time in the now? Being in the now is easy when you are in a lovely environment, enveloped by nature, perhaps on a beach, looking out at the horizon, noting the difference in the blue of the sky and the blue of the ocean. And without a care in the world, because you know that these are days off and there is no need to think about anything beyond the moment. Not a care in the world.
And then after the bliss out, the holiday is over, and now you are back to the way you live most of your life. But are you truly back – spending time in the now – or are you already planning your next escape, living in the future?
When do you live?
Some people spend their whole lives living in the future. Others spend all their time dwelling on the past. And some just live in the present moment. Now, of course it is essential to do all three. If you never lived in the future, how would you prepare for it? If you spent zero time thinking about the past, what would you know about how the world works? And if you never lived in the present moment – what would you experience?
And today, right now, we are going to talk about the now. Why? Because, paradoxically, it seems to be the time that most people could benefit the most from living more in.
It’s an age old concept. Now is all you have! Future and past are nothing but a string of now moments. So the quality of my future life will be the quality of all those future now moments. And this means that if you miss out on all those future now moments because you are too busy thinking about the future or the past … well, then you are losing out.
So you may want to spend a significant part of every day living in the now!
Now, sometimes when I speak about this people go: “Me – oh – but of course I live in the now. I am! I am in the now! Where else can I be?” And the next moment they start fretting about the next email, task or deadline. Thoughts like those will bring you into the future fast – and once you are there they leave you hanging, high and dry!
The now ceremony
So back in the now. How often do you really spend time being here and now? Time with no internal dialogue, no planning, no thoughts of the future or past. Just experiencing the here and now. Notice that even as you answer the question you go into the past – no need to worry about that – taking an inventory is a good thing.
Take drinking tea for example. Pick a cup and taste every single drop, every single nuance of flavor, allow it to slide down your throat. Notice what happens. How does this being fully present feel? Refreshing, right?!
Is this the way you usually drink tea? Think about what it would be like if you did this with every cup of tea. Or coffee. Or water. Or anything you do! Being fully engrossed in what you do. Engaging all the senses: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, gustatory, vestibular even! The quality of our experience changes and increases dramatically when we land fully into that experience.
Ideally you also switch off your internal dialogue, so you live totally in the land of raw sensory experience. We teach our students how to do this, but if you don’t know how to do this you can engage your internal dialogue as an ally. Use it to direct your attention by describing your experience. “Now I am lifting the cup.” “The cup touches my lips.” “Warmth.” “I smell the tea.” “I feel the liquid in my mouth.”
Blessings of being present
The feeling of owning the moment fully brings joy to every single cell in our body. And the scientific research shows that being fully present and bringing our whole being into any experience reduces stress, leaving us younger, refreshed and more aligned with our resources.
Love yourself enough and give yourself the gift of engaging fully with some of the things you do on a daily basis.
You will notice that by spending time in the here and now you also discover resources that are not available when you live only in the future. Being present will allow you to shift certain things quicker. You see, being in the future, wanting, planning, desiring sometimes also cultivates the energies of lack and scarcity. Wanting something presupposes that you don’t have it! Whereas being in the now, opens up a whole world of resources available to you NOW. You see what you have and what you can use. A whole world of abundance opens up.
So rather than travelling to other dimensions, spend some time right here, right now, and see where it can take you :-)!
This, of course, requires a daily practice, and what’s beautiful is that practicing being and living in the now is super easy! All it takes sometimes is a cup of tea, and yourself. The perfect magical combo! Go on, put a kettle on, have a cup of tea, immerse yourself in the now, and savour every single drop of it!
Sending you oceans of love,
Lidija & Thomas
Upcoming NLP trainings in Brussels and U.S.
We would like to invite you to join our Internationally accredited NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner trainings in Brussels and U.S. For more information, please contact us: info@momentum-strategies.com
Lidija Marković Rosati – International NLP Trainer, Master Coach, Psychological Counsellor and Hypnotherapist
Thomas Björge – International NLP Trainer, Master Coach and Hypnotherapist
