I've just watched Kung Fu Panda with the kids (again) and it reminded me of the importance of disconnecting and enjoying time in the here, the now, the present.
“You are too concerned with what was and with what will be. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.” Kung Fu Panda
How true is this?
But what do you do to unplug and enjoy time in the here and the now.
Some people eat and drink in excess, or rely on external activities, or stimulates to help achieve a similar level of awareness. But it is something we can enjoy naturally by ourselves.
This is something that the demands of day to day life often gets in the way of, or at least we allow them to. We don’t give ourselves the time or permission to take a step back, relax and come to our senses.
But no matter how busy and overwhelmed you get with the stresses, strains and demands of day to day life, being present and focused on the here and the now, can allow you to enjoy some respite and take a step back and recharge and re-focus, and this perspective can be priceless.
When I ask clients what keeps them busy and prevents them from relaxing and enjoying some “me time”, the most common response is time, or lack of time followed by not knowing how to relax.
Then when I ask clients what they do to relax, they say things like, watching television, being on their phone/tablet, browsing the internet, catching up with friends, playing games, or being on the favourite social media platform facebook, Instagram, pintrest, twitter, YouTube etc.
“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift, which is why it’s called the present.” Bill Keane
There are many things we can’t stop or control in life, but there is a lot we can. We can stop doing, or at least reduce certain activities, for example just because e-mail and social media is available at our fingertips, on our phones and tablets, it doesn’t mean we have to keep looking at it!
May be it's time to give people you’re with the attention they deserve.
And on the other hand we can enjoy activities which allow us to spend more time in the here the now the present, we can choose to adopt more empowering lifestyle strategies by doing more of the things we enjoy.
So many of our stresses and strains are self-imposed, the thoughts and worries we allow to reside in our mind. The good news is we can stop and change them if we want to.
Whatever you are doing now, stop take a deep breath and just focus on your breathing, look at something, hold something in your hand and feel the texture of it. Simply make the decision and give yourself permission to be present and engaged in this very moment.
“You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry. Don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.” Walter Hagen
We get more of what we focus on and sometimes we spend too much time focusing on the things we don’t want, or we feel we can’t do and just getting overwhelmed with events and life.
So if what we thing about we bring about, it’s vitally important that we focus on the things we do actually want.
Many of my clients come to see me because they want to move from where they are currently (often a negative place) to where they want to be (often a positive place).
But once we programme our minds and focus our attention on what we want. It’s equally essential that we allow ourselves time to enjoy some neutral time. Time when we are not thinking or worrying about the past or the future, simply time when we are just present and engaged in the here and the now.
Think of this as your opportunity to sit in your docking station, download and connect to your charger and recharge your energy and resources and just enjoying being in the moment of life now.
Sometimes this can be tricky especially if we aren’t happy with our current position. But in order to have the strength and energy to get where we want, it’s critical we take time out to relax and unwind and re-charge, otherwise we will find ourselves running on empty without the strength and energy to do things we want to do, have to do and need to do.
This is one of the things I help many of my clients with, helping them to establish some healthy lifestyle strategies, that allow them appropriate downtime and neutral thinking time, something that most us would benefit from doing more of.
Whether that be a professional athlete striving to be the best that they can be and reach the peak potential, or take that vital shot which makes the difference between winning and losing. A student about to take their exams, a public speaker about to step on stage, a parent struggling with work life balance. The one thing that benefits all of these, is having the ability to naturally get out of their own head. The reality is we do everything at its best when we aren’t thinking about it, when we do it on auto pilot. But to do that we need to keep our inner resources charged up.
For me the best way to do this is to allow ourselves to take time to just enjoy being present and the variety of ways you can achieve this is endless. The greater variety of ways you can do this the better.
This is why so many people work so hard and spend so much time looking forward to their annual holiday, because they are usually doing something different, in a different environment, engaged in doing different things, enjoying different scenery, they engaged their senses in different ways.
Anything that allows you to connect and use your senses allows you to be more present.
What do you do to unplug and enjoy time in the here and the now.
Do you need some inspiration on how you could naturally get out of your own head and be be more present click here for ideas on how you can Relax and Unwind
Now take a few moments to think of as many different ways you can enjoy the power of now and be more present.
Wishing you all the very best,
Christian Baker
“What Your Mind Believes You Will Achieve”