Living Fully

Life certainly has an ebb and flow to it.  I am certain that each of us breathes easier when things are in flow and we are moving along with life in great alignment.  It is in these moments that we expand, get excited and may have more courage to leap forward.  We can find so many things in our day to notice and be grateful for as we abound with endless energy, joy and fulfillment.

Yet, as life moves forward we will eventually have that ebb to deal with when things are more difficult.  It might be the time when we have to recognize that someone close to us has to move and we will not have such close physical contact. Or we may have a difficult situation at work we are facing.  Perhaps we are watching our adult children struggle with painful situations that we have no power to make better.  We find this to be a new hat to wear as parents. Or maybe we have lost a loved one permanently and we are dealing with life from a whole new point of perspective.  Then life isn’t such a bowl of cherries. It is hard to notice the good things and be abounding with gratitude and energy.  But we move on as tomorrow always comes. It just might be harder to walk the talk.

We could choose to handle the situations – the times of ebbing and the times of flowing – in the same way - be fully present by living in the here and now.  If we live in the here and now, we aren’t living in the past of “What was” and “How I wish it would go back to that time when . . . ”, nor are we living in the future where we are worried about, “What if something bad happens?” or “What if I should have done something different?”  Rather we are living for the moment.  We live right now.  We attend to the moment right now.  We stay present.  We attend to the people in our lives right now.  We have eye contact.  We have conversation.  We listen.  We share.  We extend ourselves.  We receive.  And we partake fully in this moment right now.  Because, in reality, we only have right now.  Our past is gone, and our future is yet to come. 

If this feels foreign to you, try to touch your senses with the moment. Or touch the moment with your senses. Notice the sounds that surround you right now – those close to you and those in the distant.  Take a moment to allow yourself to feel your body as you sit. Notice how the chair feels against your body. Or notice how the wind feels upon your skin. Or feel the sun upon your face.  Allow yourself to see the colors in your environment depicting the reds, oranges and yellows in the scene around you or whatever colors you choose to focus upon. Spend time just allowing the colors to pop as you study the place you occupy at the moment. Inhale as you smell the air and catch the scents that surround you. Imagine the taste you would experience if you could taste your moment, or if you are eating, focus on the food as it touches your taste buds paying attention to the slightest differences of spices or sweets as your taste buds explode with the flavor. Savor the moment.  Put it on like a suave.  Push the “pause” button.  Be here and now. 

Drinking your moment with attentive focus is living fully.  Losing our moment because we are lost in our head due to our attention being on our thoughts about what once was, or how we wish it were, or because we are worrying about what might be, is not living fully. It is letting our lives slip away like sand in our hand.  Our moment is all we really have.  So step into it and stay focused on it.  It makes the moments much more vibrant when we stay out of the thoughts, worries and emotions and just experience the moment as it is happening right now.  See how many moments you can step into fully this week.  Decide if you find it to be worthy of the effort after you experience living fully in the moment throughout this week.