Live in the moment

When you’ve had a superb workout, finished a task that has given you loads of satisfaction, opened your eyes after a session of deep meditation, or eaten with relish a sweet and juicy orange, sit silently - very silently - and allow a wonderful wave of wellbeing to wash over you. Feel joy, contentment and peace. Prolong this feeling to fill as many golden moments as possible.

We become disenchanted with the world because, in our ignorance, we constantly think, talk, complain and analyse a distressing situation.

We do it in other ways too. For example, we paint our living room in nice, glowing colours. The living room looks good, but now the kitchen looks shabby and the bedroom appears tacky! As our wish list grows, so does our discontentment.
If we ask ourselves, ‘Is this (desire) really required? Can I take the stress involved in making my wish come true?’, then we can save ourselves a lot of needless pressure and stress.

Give simple living a chance. Fewer desires usher in more peace, and fewer possessions usher in more happiness. Help the intellect to erase thoughts such as ‘I need expensive things and branded stuff to display my worth’; ‘My life is dull. I need constant entertainment to feel satisfied’; or ‘I’m worried that people will find out I’m a fraud and not as good as I pretend to be’. These are falsehoods. Banish them.
Think beautiful thoughts instead, such as ‘I am whole and complete. I need nothing as I am everything’; ‘My life is beautiful, vibrant with health, fragrant with contentment’; and ‘I am genuine’.

 As a wise person once said, “Work like you don’t need the money, love like you’ve never been hurt, and dance like you do when nobody is watching.”
Express your happiness at every opportunity. Ages ago, a wealthy man renounced governorship to become a monk. One day, as he meditated under a tree, he suddenly exclaimed, “Oh my happiness!” When asked what had made him say these words, he replied, “I have no fears anymore. Overwhelmed by so much freedom and peace, I exclaimed, ‘Oh my happiness’!”

The key to transforming your life is to enjoy every moment of it. The secret is to do every little and big task with your whole attention.
For example, read this article with complete attention. Hold the newspaper with both hands as you read. This means you invite your left and right side of the brain to be completely engaged in this one act.

Similarly, drink your tea, wash the cup, comb your hair, brush your teeth, or go down the stairs with total involvement. Have you seen a cat sitting outside a mouse-hole, eyes and mind fixed on the entrance, waiting for the mouse to appear? Nothing matters but the present. The present moment, sanctified and purified by your complete attention, is joy.
If you do things automatically and without a sense of involvement, you are sure to miss your present appointment with joy.

Your living room may glow with a coat of fresh paint, but you will not enjoy it because you are looking balefully at your kitchen! In effect, you are telling joy, ‘I have no time for you right now, because I am busy worrying!’  Every day, for some time at least, halt the life of thought and live the life of joy. Strengthen your will. Let it come into its fullness and trueness. Remember, W-I-L-L stands for Where Inspiration Lights Life.
 
The columnists are authors of the book ‘Fitness for Life’ and teachers of the Fitness for Life programme.