As we stepped into the New Year, I began to contemplate how I wanted to approach my teaching throughout the week. So much seems to be swirling around with the energy feeling quite scattered and busy. In the desert, we are officially launching into our high season with film festivals, modernism week, tennis tournaments and galas galore. We have so much to choose from to keep us involved and entertained that it led me to my thought of the week-This Moment.
It’s easy to get pulled away from the present moment and into what meditation teacher, Sarah Blondin, calls “living in the static”. When I heard this description, it deeply resonated with me. I had the image of tuning a radio and not quite being on the station, hanging out in the fuzzy static without ease or clarity. When we connect to this moment, it brings us out of the static and into the present. It’s a way of tuning into our own inner frequency. Asking the following question can also make tuning in a more powerful experience…”What if today were my last day?”. I cringed when I first heard that question. I didn’t want to even think that today would be my final day…I’m not ready for it to be, so I’ll just choose to ignore the question. However, when I allowed some space to entertain it, it resulted in me putting on my wide angle lens. All of those things that gather under the skin, increasing irritation and annoyance, went away. The question helped to bring me out of the static and into what truly matters, which is this moment, as this is the only moment we have.
Besides being asked a challenging question, one of the easiest ways to connect to this moment is through the breath as there is nothing more present than your current breath. If we can get to intimately know the breath, how it feels in our body, how it alters and reflects our emotional state and how it brings us life, we have a powerful tool to become radically attentive to our current experience. In a more profound way, our breath is our life’s journey. Whoever it is that’s delivering a newborn baby isn’t content until they hear that baby’s first cry, a reflection of their first breath. And as we arrive at the end point of our life, in our transition to death, we let go of our final exhale. It’s as though an inhale and exhale are the punctuations of our life story.
The other thought I worked with this week is this moment is the sum of our entire life’s experience. All of those instances we have experienced from absolute joy to deep pain and vulnerability, where our heart has been so raw, have been the extraordinary teachers in our life. They teach us in such a way as to inform how we wish to be in this very moment.
So as we take these first few steps into 2017, let us remind ourselves that we are exactly where we are meant to be. Let us remind ourselves to notice when we are living in the static and offer ourselves an alternative of radical presence in the here and now. When you’re out there and you notice, it’s a magical moment in which to awaken. Take a deep breath and come home.
