Living in the Moment: What the Heck Does That Mean?

 

Present Moment Living

I always crinkled my nose and furrowed my brow when I heard that you have to “Live in the Moment.” What does that mean? Like, now, in this moment I am stressed! Who wants to live in that? My mom (who, of course lives with me and I am her caregiver) is in the hospital. She had a small seizure and some other issues. She will be coming home – good news, for sure. However, I don’t know what I’m up against. I have questions.

Will she need an aide in the house besides me? Can she be left alone for a little bit here and there? What is my life going to be like? Will I be a prisoner in my own home in my own life taking care of her – okay, I feel like I can’t breathe.

So, I had to rise and shine at 6:30 a.m. today (on Saturday) in order to get my youngest to work. I went to the “bluff.” The “bluff” is a small parcel of boardwalk – a mere couple of feet – overlooking the Long Island Sound. I’ve lived here 20 years and maybe only came here that many times. Why don’t I come here???

Stress was eating up my every muscle in my body. How am I going to manage caring for mom, working, going to school, writing, my kids, the house on and on and on. I tried really hard to “be in the moment.” It was beautiful out, clouds were moving away and making way for the sun. I snapped this photo. My body was aching from leaning over the bed in the hospital, from being in the emergency room, lack of sleep, and oh, did I mention I was stressed?

I am NOT the “look at me, look at me” type but I remembered the wise words of a dear friend of mine this week. He said to mentally train my brain to focus on this exact moment. Even if that meant saying out loud, “In this moment, all is well in my world.” So, I began to stretch right there on those few feet of boardwalk overlooking the sound. Fisherman, kayakers and boaters began to arrive in droves.

“The Voice” was telling me how stupid I looked stretching in front of everyone. For once in my life, I didn’t give a damn! As I began to stretch sideways, I could see the view of the water in front of me and it looked sideways! And there you have it! My “MOMENT” was a discovery that everything I looked at could be viewed from a DIFFERENT ANGLE! I could have a DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE and DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW! (I’m not yelling – just a lil excited here).

In this moment, all was well in my world. In this moment, I was in one of the most beautiful places on earth. In this moment, the sun was shining and the clouds were passing. Living in the moment, I got it now.

I’m not going to lie, I’m still stressed; however – and this is key – my stress feels more manageable now….in this moment!