You MUST Be Present to Win

 

At the studio, a client told us she has five kids who are always complaining about missing out on something—for instance—”hey she got to go to the movies and I didn’t”, “he got the last piece of pie”, etc.

This wise Mom shared that she tells her kids “You must be present to win!”

Ha.  She said this with a quirky smile and a shrug of the shoulder, all matter of fact and not a “poor baby” in sight.

DING…a light went off in my head.

 

Hello complainers and whiners and grumblers…YOU must be present to win!!

 

What does it mean to be present?

 

Henry David Thoreau said: “He is blessed over all mortals who loses no moment of the passing life in remembering the past.”

Wayne Dyer said; “Go for it now, the future is promised to no one.”

Deepak Chopra says: “Being fully in the present you experience the timeless. In the timeless, you find your true self.”

Eckhart Tolle (author of “The Power of Now”) says: “People don’t realize that now is all there ever is.  There is no past or future except as memory or anticipation in your mind”

 

NOW baby.  This is truly the only thing we have.  We can spend our moments going over and over (and over, ad nauseum) what happened in our past, rehashing it, replaying it, reanalyzing all the details of what happened, what they said, what I said, and live from that swirly place…

Or we can let the past go, let it settle, let it be the basis of our wisdom and focus on the only thing we really have…NOW.

And that goes for the future too.  Much of our attention is spent thinking of what is going to happen.  Worrying.  Planning. Setting goals.  New Year’s resolutions anyone??   Mwah ha ha.

And the biggest future misconception: “I’ll be happy when ________.” fill in the blank.

“I lose weight”, “I meet my soul mate”, “I have $300,000 in the bank”, “I buy that Scottish castle” or “I get a job as Jennifer Aniston’s personal assistant.”

Meanwhile, the NOW is quietly, patiently waiting to get acquainted.

This was a difficult concept for me to grasp back when I first read the “Power of Now” like 14 years ago.  It is such a habit to spend most of our waking time in the past or the future, we don’t even know how to get in the present.  It literally takes a lot of practice to transform that way of being.

Here are a few tips to help:

  1. Look around and see what is right in front of you. Take a breath.
  2. Listen to what is happening around you. Tune in to the birds chirping, the clock ticking, the fridge running, the garbage truck on the street beeping. Bring your thoughts in. Breathe.
  3. Feel what is going on inside your body. Heart beating.  Stomach gurgling. Back aching.  Lungs expanding.
  4. Take a moment to gather some appreciation thoughts. “I love the way my thighs look”.  “I am glad the garbage service exists so the streets stay clean.” “I adore the finches popping about through my yard.” “I am so grateful for refrigeration that keeps my strawberry yogurt from going bad.” YOU get the idea.

Literally just a few minutes of this kind of centered calm through out your day will eventually bring you to a more present state of living.

And remember you MUST be present to win!!

The Present is a present.  Get it?

~The Fierce Pollyanna

Shelly Dax

Be fierce. Be kind. Be Feisty.