As a human being, I understand more than ever that we, as human beings, are always seeking to find satisfaction outside of ourselves. We are forever trying to find something external to pursue our happiness, help us enjoy our experience on this planet and we are all, at some point, guilty of not realizing that what we need to seek true happiness and truly enjoy our life is already inside us and ALWAYS has been.
We are forever clinging to material things and without them, we have the false sense that we would be nothing. We have false beliefs that we need another person to enable our own happiness and we fail to understand that it only takes our self to be truly happy. We put faith and trust in our relationships, rely on our financial income, change our appearances now and again and spend extortionate amounts throughout our life time on "objects" in the aim to make us feel better about ourselves. Short-term, yes this works, long-term? Not so much.
We are forever living in either the past or the future. We don't see the beauty around us. We are either fixated on what should have happened or what we think should be happening. So much so, we are missing out what is happening NOW and NOW is actually only what exists. The past no longer exists and neither does the future, so why do we focus on what is not now so much?
We need to stop, pull back and truly look around us. Not just look with our eyes, but use all of our senses. We need to embrace what surrounds us, truly interact with the people who are communicating with us, smell, touch and feel everything in THIS moment only. We need to catch our minds out when it tries to pull us away from the moment and when it tries to pull us back into the past or in the future. We are always questioning our self, and always waiting for things to improve in areas in our life. Why don't we all try and appreciate what is happening for us right now?
We need to appreciate the food we are eating right now, the roof over our heads right now, the health we have right now, the loved ones around us that we have right now. The very fact that we are alive and breathing right now. This appreciation of what is rather than what we think should be or what was, will improve our quality of life immensely. If we do happen to be suffering in THIS moment, then we can deal with it here and now. If we are struggling in THIS moment here and now, we can try to come up with solutions in the here and now.
So many of us our living our lives on auto-pilot. So, we don't actually SEE what is going on around us. You may argue with this and say "yes but I do see?". Maybe, but how much? Do you pay attention to detail? Do you truly smell the wonderful senses around you? Do you really embrace the love and companionship around you? If yes, then try and ask yourself how does this make you feel? When we are truly living in the now, there is no need to think, worry, procrastinate, wonder where our next steps will take us, wonder if things would have been different if we did this or that and there is no need to wonder where the future will take us. Truth is, it's none of our business what our life has for us in the future, we will deal with it when we get there.
People need to remember that time is man-made. We are all conditioned to believe that we must as human beings follow a time schedule, live to certain social status, eat at certain times, sleep at certain times and so on. We must remember to do as we please and do what WE feel is right. You don't need somebody else to make you happy, you don't need that new car, you don't need all of the money in the world. Some of the most happiest people I have come across in life our not rich, they are not "up" in the hierarchy of social status, they don't drive around a fancy car, they aren't stuck in "good" careers and so on. Most importantly, they don't live in the past or the future.
Our mind can be a trap. We don't realize that when we speak to people we aren't truly there, engaging with them. We are always thinking of other things. We don't realize that when we are just being in the moment our minds are in fact pulling us elsewhere. It is extremely difficult to shut off the mind, so the trick is don't try to and just let it be there, let it be present. You will find that the more you practice being in the now, your mind will try to pull you back to either the past or future. Truth is, there is no past or future, those were also just moments of the now.
We all know how short life is, but people tend to forget this. We become lost in our jobs, in our relationship, our hobbies, our problems and issues and even other peoples lives that we tend to forget the importance of our own. We need to remember that true happiness is really inside of us, so we need to try and stop looking elsewhere and seeking happiness from external things. Like I said above, it took me a long time to come to this realization. It takes practice.
Just try it. When your looking at something, really look at it. Take in everything about it. The scent, color, texture, the lot. When your talking to someone, really communicate with them. Listen and feel, you will be surprised that conversation actually flows better this way and when you remain engaged in a conversation without being distracted by the mind, you will find that you actually take more away from it. When you are eating or drinking, really taste the flavor. Take your time with it, appreciate the very fact that you are eating and that you have the opportunity to be able to eat and try new things.
We often take for granted the simplest things in life and often don't fully appreciate them until they are taken away from us.
Just remember, whatever is in the past no longer is relevant in our lives and no longer matters and whatever is in our future, really is none of our business.
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