Make it count….

Our lives are really full. There is a powerful pre occupation with “doing” that keeps us really busy. We step out into this world from the cocoon of our parents and launch ourselves onto the treadmill of life. As life gains momentum we zing past events and quickly move onto something new and what was recently experienced becomes a memory, stacked onto other memories that fade into the backdrop of our thinking.

When does life take on more meaning? Is it when the children are born, or when the grandparents pass away? For most of us it takes a jolt, an intervention from the side to shift us away from doing to being.  Don’t get me wrong, doing is great, for practical purposes, but for most of us we just keep doing because that is all there seems to be.  Doing on a gross level is striving, goal setting, achieving, attaining, justifying, winning, losing etc. Doing on a subtle level is far more powerful as it is the driver of your physical doing. It is how you think and how you mould your life from past experiences and habitual patterns.

Being releases you from the need to win, achieve or attain. You can still play the game but you become detached from the outcome.  This then gives a space for you to become more engaged in the process, giving each step the exact amount of effort required to complete the task in the most positive way. So often, striving for the end result takes us away from the enjoyment of the process. In life we say things like; I will be happy when I earn more, I will be free when the kids leave home, or when the exams are out of the way I will be more relaxed. This is so true, and it is the conditioning of a mind, doing it’s own thing that will quickly replace this moment, with the promise of a better moment.  This is one of the ego’s biggest lies. In truth, there is this moment, complete and pure, then the next moment, complete and pure, and so on.

There is a great movie with Adam Sandler in call “Click”. He is given a clicker (Like a TV changer) that can fast forward situations in life. It literally moves you past the uncomfortable times to so called times that promise happiness. But the clicker becomes conditioned to fast  forward by itself (like the mind) and before you know it he is at the end of his life and realizes sadly that he missed out on so much.

Being means “letting go.” But I can hear you ask, If I let go, who will I be? Well you will be exactly the same as you were but with a softer, lighter touch to life. When you let go, your attitudes, ideas and beliefs are still there, but there is more room to observe your reactions to them.  You become supple to your approach to life and not rigid and stuck in your ways.

Slow down and make each moment in your life count.  Make the most of each situation by choosing to “be”.  Take a moment to indulge this fully. Let go of all that is going on, just for a little while. Sit and fully engage with what you are doing. When you lose yourself in “being” you are truly present and giving full attention to what is required in front of you.  Oh and don’t worry all your “stuff” will still be there, but by practicing this regularly you slowly give power to your ability to enjoy life’s wonderful process as a journey and not a destination.