Attention is one of our most valuable resources.
Attention is one of our most valuable resources because, when we are present:
We take away the strength of the ego, that inner voice that tells us how to perceive, based on fear and the belief that we must protect ourselves or attack.
We stop feeding the repetitive and limiting internal dialogue.
We open ourselves to the infinite possibilities of the here and now.
We make decisions aligned with our Self, from the adult, from the present and not from the past.
We reduce stress and anxiety, which is nothing more than the desire to want to control
We increase our vitality
It teaches us to observe without judgment
Recovering our personal power
Therefore, meditation is a great ally when it comes to cultivating presence.
For millennia, Eastern philosophies such as yoga or Buddhism shared practices to bring our attention to the present, in yoga for example, one of the objectives of mental and physical practice, is to bring mindfulness to our daily lives, to be present in each task we perform and to observe our thoughts. In addition, it teaches us to act instead of reacting to what we think, feel and perceive.
We react when we are imbued in the thoughts of the past, when we stop being in the adult (the present), falling into the role of victim, letting ourselves be carried away by the patterns of limiting thoughts and beliefs that are continuously repeating in the mind like a broken record, hindering our progress.
On the other hand, when we are in the present, we stop reacting and start acting from a space of total responsibility for what happens to us, for what we perceive, think or feel, we stop projecting on the outside, we stop judging others and we take responsibility for our internal states and for everything we experience.
By judging the other, by saying that X situation and another person is to blame for your bad mood, your anger, your sadness, etc. what we are decreeing is that this person or situation has power over us, giving up our personal power and assuming victim roles, acting like children with childish attitudes.
The good news is that there are tools to help us get out of these unbalanced and incongruent states and meditation, which is basically the practice of mindfulness, is one of them.
There is no doubt that meditation is a challenge for everyone, especially in the culture in which we live where we are continually bombarded by information of all kinds, through television, social media, continuous messages, calls and emails that continually divert our attention from the present moment.
With the advances in technology we can witness how the culture and the way of living has become more and more accelerated, always in a hurry and with less and less time to attend to our interiors.
We have become accustomed to getting up and immediately picking up our phone or turning on the TV to consume information, not giving our Self space to create connection with us and guide us through our day.
Therefore, now more than ever we must become aware that if we want to recover our personal power, our vital energy and our free will, we must get down to work, committing ourselves to creating new habits that will help us to recover that which represents an enormous gain for our wellbeing.
Like any habit, to obtain results we must be constant, meditation is a habit that must be cultivated daily, and as we commit to the practice we gradually receive the enormous benefits of doing it, we can start a few minutes daily and increase them as we go along, in those moments we focus on attending to our inner self, we attend to the discomfort, bodily sensations, present emotions and recurring thoughts.
It is important to emphasize that the practice entails a continuous observation without any judgment, it is to be compassionate with ourselves in the moments when the practice is challenging, it is to practice continuous self-love and to let go of control, it is to open ourselves to receive help from our Inner Guide who is always waiting for us to give him the permission to intervene and give us a hand, it is to trust more and more in the intangible, in that 99% that we see with the eyes of the body but that is always present and that is part of us.
I invite you to give yourself permission to take a few minutes of inner listening, of mindfulness, to give yourself that space for you who are the most important thing.
Have a nice beautiful day Ser.
