How To Live In The Now
The following piece is an excerpt from my book, “Word, From Your Mother,” a daily guidance journal written for my children, Liv and Pierce-Gabriel.
Excerpt #46
How can we perceive timelessness? After all, we live in a world perceived by time, a human concept created for the sake of a beginning, middle, end, or yesterday, today, tomorrow, or past, present, future. I’m sure you’ve heard the mystics say, “there is no such thing as time.” Timelessness is especially true if we are living in the “now” or the present moment. So, then, what is timelessness?
In front of our very eyes, what is not fleeting, passing away, deteriorating, dying? Deepak Chopra explained in his meditations that what survives and is not fleeting is “creativity.” That energy will always be “out there,” building and building upon itself infinitely. Everything else is transitory from an external or form perspective.
We can create beautiful pieces of art and sculptures, but they fade away, crumble, or decay over time. However, the creative idea will always exist because it was born of energy, the energy of an idea, or desire realized. We, ourselves, our form or shell, dies every day. I don’t mean to describe that from a morbid viewpoint. It is true that as we grow older, our cells break down. Those cells are the tiny powerhouses of energy that keep our human form moving and alive. Then, there comes the time when they are slow down and retire. But, the creative force inside of us-call it spirit or essence, never goes away. It is free once again to move about, perhaps finding another form as its vehicle for transmitting its precious, beautiful, creative energy.
The trick is, how do we remain present throughout the day without looking at our watch, our phone? How do we squelch the anxieties and fears associated with our time reference? Isn’t everything based on our perception of time? We have busy schedules; we divide up the day into chunks. We categorize our tasks allotting 10 minutes to do this. Oh, it’s time to cook-how long will it take to make dinner? Will I get to bed on time? In timelessness, if you can live there, you go beyond these ideas, things, preferences. As Deepak said, “We have the choice to shift our allegiance to the timeless.”
How do we put this into action? By celebrating creation in the present moment. It is a challenging task to live in the now. It takes awareness and concentration to divorce the ego. I remind myself with gentle reminders (especially if anxiety or negative thoughts arise), return to where I am presently, and relish in the creativity of now. How? I take notice of the mundane and my role as a quiet observer. I listen to the children’s voices without referring. I watch the people in the classroom interact without judgment. I turn to my senses to recognize the subtle smells of school cafeteria lunches, a crayon-marked coloring page. I hear the song of the “aha” moments of a child who has learned something. I observe the number of visible dust particles on my desk without counting. I feel from the inside without labeling. I observe the tortoises in the large aquarium next to me, which produce joy. “Life is fleeting, but what survives is not fleeting.” Deepak Chopra
Originally published at http://frequencyfacilitator.com on April 23, 2021.
