THE RADICALITY OF NOWNESS
“As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out the present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love - even the most simple action.” -Eckhart Tolle
I spent the weekend with my coaching cohort and the theme for the weekend was “process” and the tag line was “be here now.” When I heard this, I rolled my eyes a bit because that is an adage that I’ve heard a million times. But then I asked myself (as I’ve asked myself a million times), “why is being in the now so damn important?”
Across yoga and other methods the idea of the present moment is a recurring theme to enlightenment and leading a fulfilled life.
One of the reasons is that when we are not in the present or the now we are not able to deepen most of anything, particularly ones understanding of oneself.
What we don’t realize is that most of us are living in a constant state of the future or the past. When I rolled my eyes I was living in the past, based on my past knowledge. I had already assigned a definition to "The NOW" and that past interpretation, prevented me from making a deeper inquiry. When we are settled into those patterns there is a habit of living “outside” of oneself. In this state we are neglecting our internal world in a way. So practicing presence is pretty damn radical! It goes against the grain of what we habitually do.
When we are living outside of ourself we don’t get the opportunity deepen our knowledge of ourself. We are just skimming the surface. But when we remind ourselves to be present we realize that the well inside is endless. There is always something to discover. When we tap into that endless spring within us, we see the endless potential in the world around us.
So how do we get radical and practice NOWNESS? Well the best way is through our bodies. Getting to know them deeply through movement and stillness. Staying with a feeling when it arises and resisting the urge to push it away. I have this weird thing that happens when I am mediating consistently. I feel like I get more time. Like I get a few more hours in the day. Because maybe when we deepen, expansion is possible. If we practice presence does time expand?