Slow Down and be Present in Your Life

"We fast-forward, speed-dial, FedEx, speed-date, and dashboard dine. We race deadlines, channel-surf, and instant-message with a vengeance. Multitasking is a way of life. We run all day, and at night we relax with a fast-paced novel. We live in the throes of speed. Whatever we want, we want it now."

Have you ever wonder as you rushed through life, did you miss anything? As you travel from home to work, or from work to home, did you have a moment to enjoy the scenery? While you were talking to a friend or colleague, did your mind wonder about thinking of what to say or you need to rush off some piece of work?

As my friend put it at the end of every session, "Thank you for being in the present. Thank you for being with us." There is no further truth than this! I am guilty as hell, and I do have problem living in the moment. No that it cannot be done, just that I have to put in effort to stay in the moment.

Since little, I remember worrying about school on Monday when it was only Saturday. I was troubled with dusk when it was still morning. I was harried that we will be parting our way when the party has just begun. You see, I am a "worry-er". I kept missing the most important moment in life while looking too far ahead in time. For children, it is a natural thing to stay in the present, see how they play, see how they run. They don't conserve their energy worrying there are homework to be done. As we grew up, we lost this natural gift.

To be present in your life is like paying attention. When we are alert to the world, we improve substantially the quality of our responses and therefore the quality of our lives and the lives of those who touch ours. When we speed through lives, everything is in the blur.

"The presence of our future in our present is an essential feature of the human condition. We act with purpose, which provides us with a window on tomorrow. Even so, we must learn to position ourselves effortlessly within each moment, rather than stumbling through time. We can either escape from the moment or stay with it as it unfolds and do something good with it. It is by doing justice to time that we begin doing justice to people."