We stress in our classes the vital need to ‘live in the now’ – not wasting energy looking back on the past with regret,
not looking forward in dread as to what the future MAY bring, instead bringing all our energy into the NOW, and living life the way we were MEANT to.
In my early ‘training’ I had a Teacher called Emil who began to instruct me in the benefits of channelling my energy to completely focus on the task in hand. He pointed out just how much we scatter our energies; when we drive the car, do the cleaning, prepare food, our body goes on ‘automatic pilot’ and our thoughts are everywhere but on what we are doing – only minimum energy going to the task in hand.
One evening I was asked to ‘stay in the NOW for one hour’. This would be fun! I put the timer on and began to prepare our evening meal. I got the ingredients together for a salad, then turned on the tap to wash the vegetables. I suddenly SAW the afternoon sun shining through the water and thought, “Oh, it looks like liquid crystal!” I picked up a lettuce leaf and really studied it as I held it beneath the water – “Oh, there are VEINS on a lettuce leaf, just like ordinary leaves – I never noticed that before!”. Next I cut open a tomato – “Oh, YELLOW seeds in a RED tomato!” (said the woman who had been saturated with Heinz ‘Big Red’ adverts). It was all very fascinating – like I was really SEEING my world for the first time, but soon the novelty wore off and the last half-hour felt like ETERNITY – my monkey mind wanted to be ANYWHERE but right here and now.
Emil kept me at it though and when I had finally conquered ‘one hour’ it was then extended to ‘one morning’, then ‘one day’, next it was ‘twenty-four hours’, and I found that it got easier and easier to do.
During that time we went on a six-week holiday to Britain and Emil’s advice was to ‘leave the watches at home.’ What! We had planes and trains to catch, people to see – how could we do that? His answer was, ” When you wear a watch you capsule your life into time slots, and everything is governed by that little thing on your wrist.” So we left our watches at home and discovered to our delight that when there was a NEED to know the time either a public clock would present itself, or we would sit next to someone with a nice big dial on their watch – we never had to ASK anyone.
We found that when we didn’t FOCUS on time our day became much more fluid, we ate when we were hungry, not just because it was 8 a.m. 1 p.m. or 6 p.m. We started our day much later than usual because of morning meditation, but then we were on the go till midnight – so we still fitted lots into it. What really started to emerge through all this was that we were hearing our prompts much more clearly now that we were staying focused in the now.
When we got back home and started back into business it was difficult for Jim for he had truck schedules to work out, meetings to attend, etc. and so he had to limit his ‘no watch’ times to the weekend. I was working from home and found that I could continue on in this mode – and what an improvement in my life! Previously I had always been famous for being late – I always had so much to do and trying to fit in ‘just one more job’ before I left (so there would be less to do when I got back). Let’s face it – apologising for being late doesn’t get you off on a good footing with people! Now when I got the prompt to move I would down tools immediately and get ready, I found I was always on time. Except for one day. I had heard the prompt, got ready, but when I switched on the ignition and glanced at the clock I found I was running ten minutes late. How had that happened? I must have ‘missed my cue’. I stepped on it all the way to Fremantle, had to park two blocks away, RAN to the building because I was REALLY late now, waited forever for the lift, and finally collapsed in a chair – and I WAITED. Eventually the person I was to see came out of his office and apologised for keeping me waiting because he was running late – that’s when I realised that They would have known that – of course! I have not worn a watch since 1991 and life runs on oiled wheels now, I no longer worry about TIME.
It goes deeper than just staying in the NOW for a few hours; in times of challenge you must bring yourself right down to living in the SECOND in order to get through this. I discovered that when our business began to fail, it got to the point where I HAD to stay in the now – for tomorrow was too scary to even contemplate. In the darkest days the only thing that saved me from breakdown was to remind myself constantly throughout the day, “AT THIS MOMENT I have a roof over my head, my family around me, food in my belly, a fire in the grate and a comfortable bed – I’M ALRIGHT.” And we got through.
Now we live our lives in the now all the time – and would be unable to go back to the old way because it has so proved its worth. Life is much happier these days, there is more awareness and a great sense of peace – but you still have to guard those thoughts! We have breaks between our class sessions, but out of the four or five weeks off there are not many days that are exclusively OURS; there are no classes running – but that doesn’t mean that the work stops, it simply takes a different turn. One morning I was trying to complete a project and the phone rang constantly all morning – each call quite genuine, someone needing help. When Jim came in for lunch I had just finished advising someone of the value of staying in the now in order to help them cope with their fears, my last words were, “Don’t forget – STAY IN THE NOW, it will be alright.” I turned to Jim then and said, “What a morning! Here I am telling people how to do this stay in the now – but right now I don’t LIKE my ‘own now’ very much – and I suddenly stopped. What had I just said! There I stood in our lovely home, a cheerful fire going, the delicious smells of home cooking, lovely music playing, and wrapped in my husband’s arms – and I didn’t like my now!!!!!
It was then that I realised that sometimes we have to bring it down to the millisecond in order to not lose sight of our happiness and appreciation of life – and not to waste our energies, for in hard, frustrating times we need it 100%.
Published By Jackie & Jim http://gardenof-eden.com