My Zen practice teaches me that my life doesn’t exist someday, out there, elsewhere in the future. My life exists right here. Right now. In this moment.
That can be particularly underwhelming when the monotony of pandemic life has long since set in.
I’ll bet you can relate.
For a while now, there have been fewer places to go, fewer people to gather with and see, fewer things to do, and fewer adventures – travel and otherwise – to embark on.
Staying at home more means that any given day has the potential to look a whole lot like the previous day. And, as we’ve all discovered, that can become draining.
It’s tempting to fixate, then, on the “one day” in the future when we will be free to set out into the world with people (!!) doing things and going places. Oh the excitement that we will be bombarded by! It will be refreshing and exhilarating and wonderful!
Yes, very possibly. For a while. But then we will inevitably grow accustomed to that way of living and it will settle into being a less than thrilling normal.
That’s just the nature of things. It’s one of the reasons so many people find themselves living for “one day”, no matter the circumstances they find themselves in today.
So, this unarguably monotonous pandemic period is actually a really good practice field for developing the muscles that bring you into living fully in this moment, seeing and experiencing all of the wondrous and incredible aspects that exist right here.
How do you develop the ability to wake up out of the trance of monotony or living for the future to experience for yourself that in life, there are no ordinary moments and that the moment you’re in right now is full and wondrous?
That’s actually one of the modules that I teach in the Spiritual Habits Program. When I work with clients, we dive deeply into this idea, what it means in their life, and we assemble a set of Spiritual Habits to help them access the extraordinary nature of each “ordinary” moment.
Because we’re all facing these ongoing pandemic conditions, I thought I’d share with you one Spiritual Habit that can be helpful in reframing and unlocking the present moment.
The trigger or prompt for practicing this Spiritual Habit is when you find yourself bored by, on autopilot in or resisting some part of the daily routine you currently have in place.
When you notice this mindset, pause and ask yourself:
“What happens when I stop designating some moments as “special” and others as “ordinary”? What opens up in THIS moment?”
For me, very often what opens up is gratitude. I try and look at the present moment with fresh eyes as if I’ve never seen it before. With this “beginner’s mindset”, I inevitably discover something that I am grateful for that I otherwise took for granted or something that – when viewed with new eyes – is really amazing.
What if any given “ordinary” moment was actually one of those sought after “special” moments? (As many would argue, is actually the case.)
When you give this thought experiment a try, what opens up for you? Feel free to reply to this email and share it with me. I’m interested to hear about your experience.
If you’d like to dive deeper into this idea and learn how other Spiritual Habits can help you discover all that the present moment holds, all that’s “hidden” just below the surface where so many of us tend to live, click here.
In addition to learning more about working with me 1-on-1 in The Spiritual Habits Program, when you click here I also teach you another really powerful Spiritual Habit that will enable you to release three things that all unhappy people hold on to. It’s a bit of a game-changer teaching.
If you already know a bit about the program and would like to book a free, (absolutely no pressure!), 30-minute call with me to see if it might be a good fit for you, click here.
There’s no risk to you to hop on the phone with me for this discovery call and it would be lovely to chat with you.
Plus, it would give both of us something to look forward to. 🙂
Kidding aside, here’s to this moment, this life and all that it holds for us to discover,
Eric
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