A few months ago, my transformational coach asked me to write two sentences on a piece of paper and stick it on my wall.
He said if I fall into fear, doubt and disbelief, I needed to go back to those two sentences to ground myself.
The two sentences were: “I am present” and “I am here.”
He explained that those sentences have a transformational effect and they will force me to be present and let go of the regrets past and worries of the future.
Being present has allowed me to become far more aware of abundance and the many gifts in my life – many of which I had become blind to.
I often appreciate magical moments that I previously would have missed because I was so caught up in my own story.
I’m far more present in conversations with new people I meet and this has allowed me to let my gut guide me into determining if the person in front of me is congruent or if they are out of alignment with what they were saying.
The most important gift I’ve received from being present is forgiveness. I’ll be honest, this is an ongoing process for me, but forgiveness has allowed me to realize my own magnificence and that I have more worth than I had thought. This is because I stopped judging myself, being hard on myself and diminishing my accomplishments, and I started accepting myself and my current life as being exactly what the universe had intended for me.
I’ve spent years where I’ve been plagued by thoughts of “I should have” or “what if”. I now forgive myself and move on from where I am now without wanting to go back in the past to fix things.
Being present has also allowed me to make peace with my beginnings. I had often hoped that I had grown up surrounded by love instead of growing up surrounded by violence, but I’ve come to realize and accept that many of the terrible childhood traumas I’ve carried had actually forged me into the strong, resilient, caring and compassion woman I am today.
My awareness of the importance of being present has heightened and I now catch myself living in either the past or the future. As my transformational coach repeatedly says: “this is a journey, not a destination”.
That said, I now have tools that I never had before. If you find yourself flashing back or flashing forward, I invite you to take the following simple steps to get back into the flow of being present:
1. Acknowledge that you’re not present
2. Stop what you’re doing
3. Shut down the distractions
4. Close your eyes and go inside
5. Repeat over and over: “I am here, I am present.”
If you feel that you’re still unable to shake off your fears, go for a walk. I know it sounds simple, but going for a walk and being in nature is a very quick way of being present.
In fact, I found out not long ago from a healer that walking is a powerful way of performing what she calls “active meditation”. When you go for a walk, you open your mind to what is in front of you and that usually is a very powerful way of breaking the negative thought patterns and walking automatically forces you to breathe – which allows you to release!
Are you present? I’d love for you to share how you get back into the present moment when fear creeps in.
