Finding The Moment (Being Present)

All that you will ever have is the present moment. I know it sounds cliche, but if you can handle this moment with humility, patience, and intelligence, then you can easily handle the rest of your life – because that’s all that life is – a continuation of this moment. Even if you’ve spent the vast majority of your life deviating from This Moment, and needlessly distracting yourself, it doesn’t even matter. You still made here, to this moment, precisely the way your Soul intended, and all is well. Deep down you know this, and always will no matter how chaotic things appear around you.

And I know it seems like the world around you incessantly and obsessively wants you to place your awareness somewhere else, anywhere but this moment. Every time you turn on the news or pull up your social media feed there is another reason for you to feel afraid, anxious, upset, angry, divided, etc. And who could possibly blame you? You have empathy, you care about the plight of others, and it hurts you to know that other people are suffering and that life is unfair for a lot of people.

It’s important to remember that while your existence is infinitely important, to the point that space and time as we know it would literally unravel if you stopped existing, you are not responsible for carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. It’s truly a testament to your character – your ability to feel pain when you see and hear stories about the suffering of other people. But you must also know that everyone in the world is being looked after with the utmost care and deepest love. You don’t have suffer on anyone else’s behalf to know, without a doubt, that everything and everyone will be OK.

So just relax your shoulders for a moment. Let yourself hear your breathing. Remember to breath in and breath out slowly. And as you do this listen to your surroundings. What do you hear? Cars driving by? Dogs barking? A TV playing in the background? Or maybe you hear kids playing outside, wisely and intelligently setting the example to rember to just be here in this moment.

The world demands so much from you, I get it. But the world and all of the stress and expectation that come with it isn’t going anywhere if you stop giving it your attention for just a few moments. If you are feeling dread about something happening next week, just schedule a time tomorrow to go back to worrying about it. If you’re not going to do anything about it right now or today, then thinking about that thing isn’t going to benefit you in any real way. Instead you can tune back into This Moment, focus on your breathing, and listen to your surroundings like you were a couple of paragraphs ago.

Perhaps, then, the solution to whatever it is you were worried about will rise to the surface of your mind. It will happen when it happens. If you enter This Moment without expectation, you might be pleasantly surprised to learn how generous it is, ironically, when you demand the least from it.

As you get better at allowing yourself to simply Be, in this moment- even for only a few minutes a day – you will quickly begin to notice how most of the people around you don’t want anything to do with this moment. They might be more interested in debating with people about some topic that makes you feel anxious. They might be caught up in the negativity of what’s on their phone screen or their television. Or maybe they are so wrapped up in their sense of self, or their expectation of how you act around them that you simply cannot find the moment when you are with them.

And all of that is perfectly fine – you don’t need to convince anyone how great the moment is once you discover it, and nobody is obligated to understand what you understand. Remember, you don’t need to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. Once you discover This Moment, your ego might be tempted to share it’s wisdom with people who are nowhere near as ready as you are.

And how do you more deeply find this moment? Simply find something you enjoy doing that gets you in a flow state. For me that has always been bike riding, going for a walk, or conducting a sound bath with crystal singing bowls. Once you find something that distracts you from your incessant thoughts, you can fall into the moment much more easily.

But depending on how strong or loud your mind is – it might be a drawn-out process and that is perfectly OK. Sometimes finding the moment and getting into a meditative state actually means that at times you will feel intense emotions or hear your train of thought louder than it has ever been. And so you just observe – you let it happen. You let your awareness observe those chaotic thoughts and uncomfortable emotions. Your mind doesn’t need to come up with a solution to those intense thoughts and feelings, but rather your awareness will tell you the solution when the time is right.

The world around you is very clever and doesn’t want you to find this moment. It wants you wrapped up in Time and worrying about the future and the past. So be prepared to master the art of non-reaction when other people start testing your ability to find and stay in This Moment. Simply try to remember that they mean well, but they are much more restless than you and they will project that discomfort on to you.

It might make you uncomfortable or tempted to react negatively. It might even look like they are conspiring to keep you out of this moment, but that is just an illusion – they really do mean well. Just remember that sometimes non-reaction is the best reaction, and that everyone is entitled to respect and common decency no matter how strange they act or how uncomfortable or restless they make you feel.

More articles on finding the moment coming soon, thanks for reading.

-James
Monday Night, March 10, 2025