I feel pretty lucky right now.
Not because life is working out perfectly…it’s not…I’m in the middle of a few messy situations, and they suck, and I would rather not be in them, but somehow I’m managing to stay in the moment most of the time, and this is a pretty new thing for me.
Back in my old life when I was walking on eggshells and felt like I was in survival mode most of the time, I was always trying to out think everything. You can’t live in the moment from that space, and it’s been a slow unravelling for me to step away from all of the thoughts and habits that I built in that life.
I saw the new Thor movie this week. It was quite enjoyable, and quite funny. Some of the funniest parts came from where Thor was in deep trouble and perfectly ok with what was happening. This is what it looks like when someone is in the moment.
I am realizing that being in the moment is a trait in people that I have always loved but didn’t know how to put my finger on. The best people are the ones that aren’t overly disturbed by life and just taking it as it comes. My mom is one of those people.
I am learning that my intuition is spot on when I’m in the moment. If I’m not manufacturing my own thoughts trying to control a situation, then I can receive and hear the intuitive messages that pop into my awareness. I fell into a moment of survival this week and started trying to control a situation…my intuition left the building completely.
I’ve noticed that when I’m living in the moment I might all of a sudden get the message that what I’m doing isn’t working, then it feels like I am teleported to the right path. All of the right people show up at the right moment to help me get where I need to go. It’s the craziest thing, but I shake their hands, laugh a little, gratefully accept their help, and keep moving forward.
On top of all of the little nuances I’ve already mentioned, there are two things I’ve noticed that have helped me to stay in the moment.
I need a direction to head towards. Knowing where I want to go and not knowing what I’m doing or how to get there is a blessing (who knew?) it keeps my opinion, and ego, out of the equation. When I am totally aimless I fall into survival mode way too easy.
I have to keep making choices and taking action without any attachment to anything which leads us to the second thing.
I need to keep moving forward. Being in the moment comes from flow, and there isn’t flow if we stick our feet in one spot. I don’t want to move forward all of the time, I have pain and tension in my hips right now because my feet want to stay stuck instead of pushing forward through this messy part of life (yes this is a real thing but I have never been able to feel the tension build up before).
One of my friends from my mastermind group posted a quote on Facebook the other day from Jimmy Valvano. This quote comes from an inspirational speech he gave 2 months before he died of cancer. I think he’s talking about living the best life you can, in the moment
“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”
– Jimmy Valvano
I don’t know for sure, but I can’t help but wonder if maybe that’s why my tears have been flowing so freely lately. I’ve been following this advice and having some pretty great days amongst the chaos.
I am not sure how long it will last but I feel pretty lucky right now.