This isn’t necessarily a new revelation for me, but somehow I’ve become more aware lately of how much time I spend wanting to get to a different moment than the one I’m in. The one I’m in is either too boring or too challenging in some way. I need to numb out of it in some way. Or I need to focus on some other past or future moment to escape it.
This habit of mine causes a lot of needless resistance and suffering.
What’s emerging for me lately feels like what might need to be a lifelong practice. Somehow, it feels like one of the core lessons I’m here in this life to learn.
What I’d so like for myself is to truly believe and practice that there is enough beauty and goodness in this moment, as it is. I practice that simply by noticing whenever I am in resistance to this moment, dropping whatever I’m doing, and breathing into myself until it clears. I imagine each breath as the universe filling me with life and inspiration. I remember that simply being able to breathe and be alive is a truly impossibly great gift.
So far, this strategy is 100% effective. I’m not saying that I don’t always remember to do it or that I don’t sometimes succumb to some form of numbing out. But so far, there is no resistance or suffering that hasn’t eventually passed when I simply keep breathing into it for long enough.
Peter Schulte
I help aspiring changemakers do good in the world and feel good in the process.