Over the last few days I’ve had quite a busy mind. I’ve probably being doing just a little too much. As well as catching up on work after having a week’s holiday, I’ve also taken on a new self-development challenge (about visibility), which as well as being very rewarding has been both thought provoking and time consuming. The end result though is that I’ve been a little overstimulated and I’ve found it really difficult to calm my mind and focus on the present particularly during my Tai chi and Meditation practices.
During one of my meditation practices I was suddenly reminded of an expression I’d read in a recent article by Toni Bernhard about bringing your awareness into the present moment. To break the spell of stressful thoughts she uses the words ‘not now’. Another thing that has been really helpful for me when I’m struggling to stay present with my practices has been reminding myself of the intention behind them. So in that moment of struggling with my meditation I decided to combine the words ‘not now’ with a reminder of what I wanted ‘now’ to be all about. So when my thoughts have raced off towards how I can make my business more successful in the middle of a meditation session I’ve gently reminded myself ‘not now, time for peace and healing’. Or when I’ve found myself going over and over what I’ve been learning in my visibility challenge when I should be focusing on my Tai chi I’ve used the words ‘not now, time for unity and health’.
It’s been so successful that it occurred to me that it would be a great method of helping me focus on the here and now at any time. So later when thoughts of my business intruded on my rest time, I reminded myself ‘not now, time for me’. I was also able to interrupt my busy thoughts when I first put my head down to sleep: ‘not now, sleep time’. It isn’t always a magic solution that keeps me focused in the here and now, I often have to keep gently pulling myself back, but for me including my intention seems to be a better hook that just ‘not now’. I guess I want to remind my thoughts that I have control and I can chose where I want to be in any given moment.
A small favour, could you please rate this article using the stars below the related posts. Thank you!
