LIVING IN THE NOW – DAY 4
The human being is an alchemist.
When your mind is anywhere other than ‘now’, how does your body feel? What emotions and sensations did your mind pull into existence with those specific thoughts?
What alchemy of mind, heart and body did you create in the middle of last night or yesterday, when your mind wandered to the past? Or predicted a future?
When the mind wanders off – and they all do, all the time – the body is left unattended, but strangely it doesn’t shut down. Quite the opposite! We (the mind) may be elsewhere, but whatever the mind is imagining is playing out in the body.
So, if we are imagining a catastrophic outcome to a difficult situation, our muscles tense, the tummy churns, the heart beats faster. Remember falling in love, and the pleasant sensations waft through like a warm breeze of peace and bliss.
It can be more complex than that too. Joyful memories of a great holiday in Spain may also bring sadness and regret if you aren’t able to travel this year… complicated emotions bring complicated body sensations.
If it’s not happening NOW, then it’s either a memory or a prediction. It’s the mind. And your body will have been pulled along for the ride.
When you become aware of the alchemy within your heart-mind-body, you are in the NOW. That’s a really useful thing, because you can use the same alchemy to work back through it to stability.
Today’s invitation is to use your awareness to notice, on a scale of 1 to 10, how vibrant your body sensations feel when your mind has been time travelling.
As we begin to notice this interaction between mind and body, we name thoughts ‘past’ or ‘future’. It sharpens our awareness. We arrive in the NOW of noticing when we are thinking.
Feel free to notice the detail of the stories your mind has been thinking, but beware they don’t pull you in and get you lost once again.
Inspirational Poem
Roger Keyes: Hokusai says
Hokusai says Look carefully.
He says pay attention, notice.
He says keep looking, stay curious.
He says there is no end to seeing.
He says Look forward to getting old.
He says keep changing,
you just get more who you really are.
He says get stuck, accept it, repeat
yourself as long as it’s interesting.
He says keep doing what you love.
He says keep praying.
He says every one of us is a child,
every one of us is ancient,
every one of us has a body.
He says every one of us is frightened.
He says every one of us has to find
a way to live with fear.
He says everything is alive –
shells, buildings, people, fish,
mountains, trees. Wood is alive.
Water is alive.
Everything has its own life.
Everything lives inside us.
He says live with the world inside you.
He says it doesn’t matter if you draw,
or write books. It doesn’t matter
if you saw wood, or catch fish.
It doesn’t matter if you sit at home
and stare at the ants on your verandah
or the shadows 0 the trees
and grasses in our garden.
It matters that you care.
It matters that you notice.
It matters that life lives
through you.
Contentment is Life living through you.
Joy is life living through you.
Satisfaction and strength
is life living through you.
Peace is life living through you.
He says don’t be afraid.
Don’t be afraid.
Look, feel, let life take you by the hand.
Let life live through you.
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