Why do we do most of the things we do during the day? Are most of the things we do a means to an end or are we doing things as a diversion to distract us, consciously or unconsciously, from what we really need to work on?
The need to always be doing is overwhelming, so much so to the point that we never get a chance to have a moment to ourselves – aside from the commute to and from work, which does not count! When we do have a moment, a feeling arises that the moment is not deserved or is to be avoided, so we fill our quiet moment with distractions or more information. Aren’t we distracted and informed enough?
This is so stressful on our lives. Many of us have become accustomed to living these lifestyles of busy-busy, go-go. What does this tell us about ourselves? What are we teaching our children? We need to balance our doing with being. If we feel that we are pulled in so many directions, it is because we are doing it to ourselves. We take on more than we would like to at work, we can’t say no to a friend, we need to drive our three children to three different events each week, we take more classes, read more books, go to more seminars, but where are WE in all of this? Where are our needs? When the moment comes, do we journal like we wanted to? Meditate like we’ve been planning to? Read to the children, take that walk, exercise, talk to our spouse, take a relaxing bath or just be still?
What is it all for if we can not enjoy regular moments of just being without doing or thinking about doing? We will find that if we take the moment we have or create the time for the moment we’ve been meaning to have, then we learn more about our true self and our needs and heart’s desires. When we allow for regular moments to be, we are guided to a more fulfilling and richer life, not only for ourselves but for our family and those with whom we come in contact. We start to become more centered and grounded. We become more compassionate and patient, both with ourselves and others. Our thoughts transform from incoherent towards coherent, therefore we are better able to stay calm, focused and have clarity in our communications.
Claim your moments and allow yourself to just be with no other input from TV, audio, books, your own thinking of past or future events. Just beginning with a simple five to 10 minutes a day is all that is needed. You can build up slowly from there. Remember what John Lennon sang, "Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans."
The Universe requires balance. If we do not create the balance for ourselves, it will be created for us in a way we may not find very pleasing. We must create moderation by being the moderators of our own lives. There would be no better time to take a moment for ourselves than today…because all we have are todays…all we have is now…and all we have are moments.
