“Time waits for no one”. Maybe you had that moment in your life when you realized how cruel the passing of time can be or maybe you hadn’t yet. I don’t know about you… but when I stopped to reflect upon this, indeed time did not stop to wait for me to deeply analyze its meaning. Naturally that it kept flowing and then, there I was, at the end of my thinking, two hours older, with a dinner that got cold and my sister who left shopping alone. That was not how things were supposed to happen.
I labeled immediately the time that I spent thinking as time constructively spent growing, I reheated the soup and joined my sister. However, guess what? I could not turn back the time to make a different decision and prevent things from getting complicated. With small events like this, we don’t stop to cry over the spilled milk too much and we move on with our lives by doing what we can. With important and bigger ones though, things might become unclear and harder to process. We might get a blow or more and our mind might get… glitchy. What we regard as wrong choices from our past and we regret so much may keep us psychologically blocked there and stop our evolution if we keep replaying them constantly in our attempt to undo the consequences. Our fears for what will be could make us feel unprepared and unfit if we think too much and travel too far in our attempt to face our challenges in a context that might not be at all how we imagine it to be. When this happens, all we experience is frustration, anxiety and exasperation. And if it happens 20 hours out of 24, 7 days out of 7, then we are on the Highway to hell for sure, just like AC/DC used to sing.
Where we are now is the only point in time when we can see a viable solution to our challenges and when we have the ability to actually do something. Meditation teaches us how to educate and discipline the mind to live and act free of the ego, in order for us then to be able to regard our past as lessons, to observe and accept the present with all that’s in it, and to create the future with a vivid, open and prepared mind. Ego, or what you regard as your identity or your set of reactions to life’s events, is in fact just an image resulting from a limited and, most dangerously, closed network of beliefs and stories collected on the way. Any change to this network is a threat to the ego since one identity has to dissolve in order for the new one to have space to exist. Moving forward cannot happen if the fear of losing this identity will keep us blind to new ideas. At the same time, with patience and acceptance, we can transform an identity into a new one that serves us better.
Look around and notice the green trees, that brown building, the walking sad or happy people, the sea, the sky and sand, all the shapes, colors, and interactions from the scenery. Hear and feel the wind, the water, the sun, the birds, the taste of the warm coffee and notice the smell of perfume or food coming from somewhere. Activate all your senses and connect yourself with the beauty and richness in front of your eyes. Your mind will start using all of its wonderful tools, problem-solving, anticipation, and creativity by relying on valid resources: where and what you are, and what you have now. Anything that is not part of the present will not be valid, your mind will not find a solution and you will end up feeling hopeless and stuck. No regret or fear is worth missing out on what is here now and a new path. Freedom, the power to act, and clarity about what you can do next come if you…
“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.” ― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
Elena-Iulia 