Present! Present it to yourself…

The last few days have been full of reflections and thoughts and projections, in all almost every conversation I have had. Part of it is because of who I am, and a huge reason also has been the kind of work I have chosen to contribute with. Though a lot has been discussed about the past and the future, one common thing that I found in almost every conversation was that the present is being lost somewhere in all that.

And that is what made me ground myself and decide to get into a zone of nothingness for may be a day or two. As I look at life, there is nothing more which I can live, other than the present time I am breathing in. And it is this present of mind that eventually will become my past to reflect upon, and it is this present only which was earlier the future that I had planned for. Nothing in this world can make me believe that present can be compromised with even if it creates the best chances of a glorious future. 

Incidentally in one of my sessions a day before, the same kind of thoughts were brought on the table by one of my clients. Although she was not sure as to what is it which is making her feel lost and numb, she knew that something was not she would have liked it to be. This client of mine has always been a very insightful, and reflective person, and that is what makes her a darling of everyone around her too. We chatted for about an hour on Friday, and not once but at least at three occasions, I found her crying because she realized that something which has been her source of strength and gratefulness, has suddenly turned into a cause of pain to her.

Having dug deeper into herself, and by the way the same was being done by me for myself also simultaneously in the session, she discovered that both for herself as well as with others, she has allowed the present to not be lived, in the process of thinking about the past and the future. Though both of acknowledged the power of reflection and planning, we understood that the same power is what is being allowed to be destructive, because of not being managed properly.

I knew the strength of this lady, and it came as no surprise to me that as soon as realization presented itself to her, she spent no extra time in cribbing about it and crying over it, and straight away moved into the zone of finding solutions.

And what a simple solution she came out with. To have kept a forty-five of each day from hereon, for the process of reflection and planning, and ensure that there no further time spent allowing the present to not be fully lived. These forty-five minutes also were further divided into fifteen minutes of morning to go through plan for the day, thus being mindful of the present at hand, and a half an hour in the night before she goes to bed, which is further divided into fifteen minutes of reflection the day gone by, which is now the past, and spend the remaining fifteen minutes to plan for the next day, which is the future that is yet to come.

She called me yesterday and when I asked her the question ’How did it go?’, she corrected me on my question and after having changed it to, ‘How is it going?’, she replied ‘it is going WONDERFUL as always’.

Just as it happens almost always, each of my client’s discovery helps me live a better life too, and that is exactly happened with this one too. It was she who discovered it for herself, but what came out was equally needed for me too at this point in my life. 

If you feel that you have also been in this space in your life lately, may be today’s blog was meant for you, to help you make a minor adjustment and breathe in what is present now.

Take good care!

Love, RB.