Bridget McNulty

Be here now. And now. And now.

// January 14th, 2009 // Inspiration, Life (and the living of it), Time

So I fell for all the hype and I’m reading ‘A New Earth’ by Eckhart Tolle. I know, I know, the whole world is reading it because Oprah told them to. But it is incredible! Mind-blowing. Life-altering, in the deepest sense of the word.

The one thing I keep returning to, though, is this idea that if we can just stay present in the present, that if we can just be here right now, without worrying about the past or future, that’s the space where enlightenment (and happiness and peace) can be found.

But crikey moses! It is hard to do. My mind is like a rabbit on speed.

Still, it’s a worthy goal, I think, to keep drawing our busy minds back from wherever they’ve wandered off to. I find that focusing on my senses is the best route to presence, focusing on what I feel or hear or smell or taste. For example, I was in the shower this morning, and my mind was a million miles away – thinking about this and that, planning my day in a lackadaisical way, remembering what I saw on TV last night. And then I caught myself, and brought my attention back to Now. And now was so great! It smelt like raspberries and there was hot water falling on my back and a great view out my window. I was missing out on all of that because I was so wrapped up in my head! Of course, there are times when you need to plan and think ahead, but to do that consciously, to sit down and with all your wits about you to think about the future, is far more powerful than casually letting your mind wander down future paths while you’re in the shower.

So this is my challenge for the moment: to be right here. Now. And now. And now.