Do you want to learn how to live in the now?
The trendy conversation these days seems to be how to be present in the moment i.e. live in the now. So, I thought I would firstly do a little blog about what that actually means and secondly, create a free guided meditation for you to use which will teach you how to be more present in your life, de-stress and connect with the Zen within.
Living in the now, is a mindful approach to life. It’s one that when you manage to do so, each experience and situation you find yourself in actually becomes so much more significant. But let’s get real here, being fully present in every moment takes constant practice, it’s so easy to get sucked into the distractions around you, not only from our own thoughts, but also by social media and every day noises all around us.
I personally had a wake up call when I read Eckhart Tolle’s book “The Power of Now” a long time ago. Having, at the time, spent most of my life as an athlete, I realised as I made my way through the book that I had often been allowing my mind to skip to the future, to wish ahead rather than fully enjoy what I was doing in the moment. I was also becoming aware of the fact that the moments in my life where I had had the biggest success or the most magical moments, were in fact the ones where I was fully focused on the one thing I was doing at the time.
Fast forward to my career now as the founder of Zenme and as a Life Coach, Hypnotherapist and Meditation facilitator, I get to work with clients every day reminding them of the power of living fully in each moment.
So, how do we do this? Practising meditation and mindfulness can really help improve this. When you meditate, thoughts, sounds and feelings will appear throughout your meditation, but practice bringing your focus back to one thing – your breath or for example, a mantra or a colour. Each time you do this you are teaching your mind to stay present in the moment. By practising this in your meditation you also get to enjoy this state of mind in your everyday lives too.
Another great place to improve this is when you exercise or walk the dogs, I personally practice this daily when I’m out with my doggies. Whether we are exercising, walking or meditating it’s inevitable that our thoughts will wander – What am I going to cook later? I need to make that phone call and so on, but just like in meditation, as you walk or exercise, when you realise that the mind is wandering bring it back to the present moment by noticing your surroundings – the trees, the flowers, the sky or how you are feeling as you walk.
The same thing goes for cooking, this is a wonderful place to practice too. Here you can keep bringing your thoughts back to the smells or the texture of the ingredients you are cooking. Basically using all of your senses.
By training our minds to come back to the present moment, over time we suddenly become aware that it is now a habit, a wonderful habit. You may find yourself at an event, having a conversation with someone, and actually really connecting to that person and suddenly you will realise that time has flown by whilst you have been enjoying yourself, or you will be playing with the kids and you will all be aware of the beautiful energy in the room as you enjoy each others company fully present. Hey, you may even forget all about your work, your phone and social media as you treasure these real human experiences!
If you need a little help to get to that point, I have created a short FREE guided meditation for you to use. Enjoy it and use it as much or as little as you like, and please pass it on to anyone who may need it too.
Thanks for reading my blog, I hope it brings you joy. And of course I would like to connect with you on my FACEBOOK PAGE where you can also leave comments and ask me questions.
Gratitude and love
Camilla xx
