The Power of Now
Mindfulness as a stand alone practice has been gaining in widespread popularity exponentially. As it continues to grow, more and more individuals are exposed to its core message of presence. From person to person, mindfulness varies in meaning and expression, as each person varies in experience and perception.
I often wonder if life is truly as complicated as it seems to be, or if humans reflect our own complexity onto it in an attempt to understand. Nonetheless, mindfulness serves as a grounding tool to remind us that the present moment is all we really have. That sounds trite, but we all know life is not lived in the past, or the future; it is only lived in the now.
When we allow the present to absentmindedly slip by, we leave ourselves vulnerable to untoward moments of suddenly realizing just how much time has passed. The seasons have changed, the kids have grown, the coffee has grown cold. Time will pass, entropy will arrive — such is the nature of life.
This inevitability doesn’t need to inherently invoke despair, however. If anything, it helps to give birth to a greater sense of awareness. Time will pass regardless of what we do or what we do not, and acknowledging this allows us to better engage in one of the most profound acts of the human experience: appreciation.
We deserve to relish in being alive all the time, not just sometimes. Not just when we accomplish a task, or get a promotion, or lose x amount of weight. There’s power in lofty accomplishments, sure, but there’s power in the quiet ones, too. And at the end of the day, this is what living is.
Our lives, and the joys to be experienced in our lives, are not found within a highlight reel of accomplishments and success stories, but rather in the moments in-between where our days are by and large spent. In the everyday and commonplace is the beautiful, if only we take the time to truly look.
Living is looking up at a clear sky and feeling the sunlight warm your skin like the face of a sunflower. It’s having your favorite tea or coffee next to your favorite person, knowing their gentle presence exists so comfortably next to yours. It’s watching your pet snooze away an afternoon, and feeling the preciousness of each moment in each breath.
Mindfulness does not have to be specific or concrete. It can simply be a reminder to never allow the treasured, irreplaceable moments of our lives to pass unacknowledged or unappreciated. This way, when the end of our day arrives, we’ll know we cherished our loved ones, our time, and the very essence of our lives with everything we had.
