Creating Lena » inner child

Lessons on Living in the Moment

Lena — Sun, 24 May 2009 04:07:07 +0000

To be in the now, you must let go of the overwhelming feelings that hold you in the past and keep you from moving into your desired future. ~~ R L Bray, No Open Wounds

Living in the moment is a topic that is near and dear to my heart — literally. After all, surviving two heart attacks made me realize that every moment really could be my last, so I’d best enjoy each and every one of them. It’s a real wakeup call to start living in the now instead of wasting time dwelling on a past that can’t be changed. The only thing that I can change now is how I remember and react to those memories. And, for the most part I do fairly well at leaving them where they belong.

But, there are days when the past looms large, and I’d rather crawl into a corner and nurse my hurts instead of getting on with the business of living and enjoying life. And as you can no doubt see from the huge gaps in posting recently — there’ve been more than of few of those days in the past few weeks.

One thing I’ve learned about living moment to moment though is to always be paying attention to things that show up. And when they show up in multiples, you better believe I sit up and take notice. Once or twice might be cause for a “hmm, I best have a think about that” but when four — count ‘em, four — posts on living in the moment cross my path on the same day, I really think the Universe is tryin’ to tell me something. (“Get the lead out and get back to doing what you’re meant to be doing” comes to mind.) Add to those the book I’m reading which has as one of its main premises the theory that you can’t be fully present in the now if you still have hurts and wounds from the past that need dealing with, and you have a pretty convincing club for the Universe to whack little ol’ Lena on the head with!

It was John Lusher’s post Have We Forgotten How To Be In The Moment? that got me thinking along this track early this morning. He offers up some great suggestions on how to be more present in the moment. And the comments of Mr. Business Golf on living for the nanosecond and people who bring their cell phones onto the golf course are priceless. (Don’t even get me started on people who can’t unplug long enough to play a round of golf.)

Amber at Epic Self has some really great awakening exercises for living in the now that she gleaned from reading Eckhart Tolle’s books as well as a cool list of 11 reasons to live in the now. This was my first visit to her blog, and I have to tell ya, she’s got some great stuff there.

There’s a great post at Positively Present, in which Dani shares a poem she wrote when she was thirteen and an analysis of what it means to her now. I’m almost tempted to dig out my own high school poetry and see just how warped I was at thirteen. :)

One of the best reasons I’ve found for living in the moment comes from a quote by James Joyce: “I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.” If we want our tomorrows to be something other than a repeat of today, we have to make the changes that we hope tomorrow will bring in this moment, here and now. If that’s not a good reason to not dwell on the past or worry about the future, I don’t know what is.

Living in the moment, for me, has a lot to do with feeding my inner child. I love to stop and watch the ducks in the park, and I love to sit on the swings and contemplate the flow of life. I notice things like how blue the sky is and how green the leaves and the grass are. In “The Path to Personal Growth” I wrote: “Side paths are meant to be explored, roses are meant to be smelled, and butterflies exist to be marvelled at. Live your life to the fullest, do the things you love, and enjoy every minute of it.”

And thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for sharing this moment with me. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Indulging My Inner Child

Lena — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:48:39 +0000

For more great photos, visit Wordless Wednesday

Playing With Your Inner Child

Lena — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 15:38:26 +0000

Thought for the day:
“Today I allow my spirit to play at the park. My body may be at work but my spirit is reaching for the trees as I swing higher and higher.”

I’m really excited today! My inner child is bursting at the seams to be allowed out to play. It’s like she knows that there’s something big coming and just can’t contain herself.

The adult me has known for awhile now that this would be a year of huge changes. I just never knew what, when, where, or how these changes would take place. I still don’t but that doesn’t mean that intuitive part of me isn’t ready for it all.

Today I’m caught up in a feeling that life is really great. I can’t shake it, and where before I would try and calm myself down and tell myself all sorts of negative crap to break the mood, today I have no desire to do that. Over the past few days there’s been a lot of stuff cross my path around the theme of letting your inner child out to play. Shileen Nixon wrote a great post about why as women of wonder, we need to make time for play dates in our lives. That’s kinda what started it off for me.

All I can think of is wanting to go to the park and play on the swings. I used to love that when I was little. We would go to the park and my dad would push me on the swings. I loved that feeling of freedom that comes from soaring through the air. (I’m sure the knowing he was there to catch me if I fell helped somewhat too, but that’s a story for another day.)

I think that as we get older we lose so much of our childlike sense of wonder, and that makes me sad. It’s so important to not let that go — to always know that the child who loves swings, sandcastles, and butterflies still lives inside us. And even when life is changing around us, and the to-do list is as long as your left arm and you’re wondering how it will all get done, our inner child is still there holding on for us, waiting for us to stop and play. All we have to do is close our eyes, take a deep breath, and remember the swings… and we can be right there with her, even if it’s only for a moment. :) Of course, if you can actually get outside to wander through a park or play on the swings, that’s even better!

No matter what, love your inner child. Take time to nurture her, and as always — be happy!

(Photo credit: sxc.hu)