One Snap And You’re Back!
Having Awareness is like having an elastic band for life. Only Awareness has the power to snap you back into the reality of the moment – where life is available for living, right now.
You’ve just been elastic banded! 🙂 Use this moment to snap yourself back into the present, through the gift of awareness. Stop right where you are and fill yourself up with the awareness of this very moment. Bring all of your attention to where you are at this exact moment, the only moment that exists and that matters right now. All potential is in this very moment. Lift your head, look around you and take a deep breath in. Go on. Breathe In. Deeply. Right down into your tummy so that you can feel all of your stomach and chest expanding. Allow the breath to continue to expand and rise up through the front of your body until you become aware of it settling in the upper chest and throat. Stop. Don’t breathe out. Wait just a moment. Hold your breath. Pause. Be aware of the sensations in your body of wanting to breathe out. Relax your shoulders a little bit more. Then gently, allow your breath to release and bring your awareness to how all of the front of your body softens and releases.
That’s all it takes – one breath, one moment, one snap. And you’re back! 🙂
Start with Awareness
A is the first letter of the alphabet and it is fitting that Awareness starts with “A”, because it is the place to start your journey to Be the Best You Can Be. Awareness is an internal state, owned, influenced and controlled by no one else but you. When you are aware, you are awake. Awake to life, awake in the here and now. And in any moment, you have the choice to be awake and aware. Aware of what’s going on within you and around you, aware of what you are feeling, of how the external world is communicating with you and equally of your impact on it. In any moment, you can choose to be present. To be present is to be Aware.
Where Have You Been All My Life?
You might well ask the above question to yourself. So where have you been? Are you guilty of living your life in your mind? Worrying about the past, fearing the future, imagining what might or might not happen and so much so that you have become a passive bystander, zoned out, disengaged and unaware that you have the power to impact and shape the potential of your own life, moment by moment? Is your awareness opening up now to the fact that it could actually be you who is missing from the moments of your hours and days, which together accumulate to create your life?
Awareness is a Rich Cloak
Awareness is like drawing a rich cloak around yourself so you are enveloped in and by the moment. There is so much richness in a moment, so much going on in a simple second, when we bring our Awareness to it. Awareness is not elusive. It is not intangible or indefinable. It is real, touchable and concrete and there are so many points in a moment where awareness can converge, helping you to live with life, to join with what is, in this instant. This union with the present moment can happen through using your senses, through becoming aware, for example, of what you can see, touch, feel, hear, smell or taste. When you rest your awareness in each sense for a few seconds, you are answering the invitation to join the present moment. Lets’ try it now. Allow yourself to snuggle down inside your rich cloak of Awareness that will stitch you into the present moment through your senses.
Snuggling Down In The Moment – Practice
Take a deep breath in and then softly release it out through your mouth and snuggle down into this moment. Allow yourself to be cosy, warm and safe inside the cloak of your senses. Become aware now of your eyes, looking out into your world and notice what you can see, both near and far off. What colours, sizes and shapes are around you? Look around your environment and really notice what it looks like, how everything appears. Rest here in the awareness of your sense of sight for a moment.
Next bring your awareness to what you are wearing – the textures, the patterns, the colours? Can you deepen your awareness now to actually feel the subtle weight of your clothes as they rest on your skin? Can you feel air around your face and hands or any skin that is exposed? Rest here in the awareness of your sense of touch for a moment.
What awareness do you have of sounds around you? Listen for a moment. Can you pick up the sound that is closest to you and then furthest away? Allow your ability to listen to expand out beyond you and out into this instant. Rest in the awareness of your sense of hearing for a moment.
Now bring your awareness to your sense of smell. Be aware of your nose and breathe in. Notice the delicate intake of air in your nostrils. Rest in the awareness of your sense of smell for a moment.
What awareness of taste do you have? Notice how bringing your awareness to your mouth in this way allows your tongue and jaw to soften. Rest in the awareness of your sense of taste for a moment.
Finally, notice what you are feeling in this moment? Are you aware of a physical tightness anywhere in your body or alternatively a feeling of spaciousness? Are you aware of any emotion, like tiredness, happiness, sadness or peacefulness? Rest in the awareness of your feelings for a moment.
Well done. You have just lived a series of moments through your senses. And already those moments have passed by. And so too will the next, and the next.
So, keep snapping yourself back! It only takes one moment of awareness and you’re here…here…now… in your moment.
Don’t squander your precious moments. Be aware of them.
Be the Best You Can Be in them.
Bí chomh iontach is atá ar do chumas.
Nadine