We Wish You A Happy New Now
Both Parn, me and the whole Phuket Meditation team wish you and your loved ones an amazing and happy New NOW 🙂 May you find happiness, peace and fulfillment and may you share it effortlessly with everybody through presence and kindness.
Small Steps
Everybody desires to be happy, comfortable and at peace. Nobody wants to suffer, experience stress, pain and hardship. This is what connects us with all other living beings, it’s what we all have in common. Since at the most basic level we are all looking for pretty much the same type of experience, it would be wise to see what actually causes true happiness and what’s at the root of stress.
Over the years I have learned that small steps can be a big blessing. My grand desires and ambitions often caused me to feel defeated, powerless and incapable. I started big projects only to fail at completing them – every single time! This pattern surely kept me in my comfort zone though. I was comfortable with failing and that’s what my subconscious mind was probably looking for. Even meditation or visualization techniques would feed this tendency due to the way my personality was conditioned. So for the new year I have decided to take small steps. I want to root my steps firmly…
…In the NOW
I found that it helps tremendously when I focus on what is rather than what should be. In fact, the more dedicated and devoted I am to the task at hand, the better I perform. It’s as if my attention is fueling my actions with quality and purpose. I am not doing things to get somewhere else (better). My purpose is to do whatever I do with all I’ve got. Not because I come from a perceived state of lack, but because I commit to life.
I ask myself often: “Where am I coming from right now?” Is it fear or the desire to receive love? Maybe it’s kindness, gratitude or forgiveness? By Knowing where I come from I sense where this path will lead. If my present action stems from anxiety, my direction becomes aligned with suffering. Coming from Kindness however, my direction is fueled by light. This is how I am working with the NOW to create a better future. I create a better future by aligning myself with a quality mindset right here and now.
So far I have mostly dabbled around on this path. I have tried to get somewhere, create something, become someone else. I have tried to change times, others, or circumstances around me. Most of these actions came from fear, from a sense of lack and from self-hate. So I kept repeating experiences which confirm fear, lack and self-hate. By sacrificing what is for the sake of getting something else I am completely blocking my possibility to let go of stress. Experiencing this moment as a means to an end is one of the greatest downfalls there is in this world. It’s at the very root of human misery.
Empowered by Truth
Becoming aware and conscious of what is, I have multiple choices. I am empowered by connecting to this truth. Truth is what is, just as it is. By denying it, pushing it away or seeing it as a means to an end I can’t access this truth. Instead I might be lost in my fantasies or memories, the conditioned through-stream in my head. Thus I am rendered less efficient. Imagine you would like to listen to your spouse but your favorite show runs on the TV in the background. Each time your attention gets absorbed by the show, the communication with your significant other breaks down. It becomes inefficient.
Life asks for your attention each single moment. If you are able to be aware of what is, you are at the pole position. Most people are aware of what should be, could have been, or might be. In other words, they are in their head, disconnected from the truth of what is. This is what makes it really hard to live a happy life. By living through thoughts, truth can’t carry and uplift us. We become unable to learn and grow, mostly just doomed to repeat old psychological patterns.
I am not saying that we should abandon plans and constructive thoughts leading toward a better future. But I rather state that by paying more attention to what is we could actually enjoy a better present. Life could be like a dance. We don’t dance to get somewhere. The point of dancing is this very step. The purpose of life is to be alive rather than waiting for life to match up with the voices in our heads going: “should, could, would”. The result is happiness, peace, fulfillment. And it is peaceful and fulfilled people that truly make a difference in this world 🙂
We are looking forward to see you again in the coming year!