Staying Present in the New Year

Today in class, we focused on staying present amongst the pull of the new year and the lull of the previous. This is a great time of new beginnings and a time for reflection about what new could be created in 2012 and what is no longer working from 2011. But, it can also be a distraction from where we are now. Being present takes such discipline as our culture rewards us for such planning and talking of the future and our past can often seem like it is following us like a tailgater. But truly the present is all we have. We miss so much of what is happening now by worrying about the future or relenting about the past. What if we were to truly focus on just being here in our present bodies, in our present mind forms and our present lives? What if we just celebrated the now and found gratitude for where we are and what we have molded ourselves to be today? We can enjoy so much more of life and truly live if we are able to temper the mind to stay present. So, I challenge you to celebrate the now and to give yourself the gift of the present for now and the year to come. You are you and no one else gets to be you...so celebrate that!

Here are the quotes I read in class:

These days, my practice is teaching me to embrace imperfection: to have compassion for all the ways things haven't turned out as I planned, in my body and in my life - for the ways things keep falling apart, and failing, and breaking down. It's less about fixing things, and more about learning to be present for exactly what is.
Anne Cushman

Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings.
Rumi


Having spent the better part of my life trying either to relive the past or experience the future before it arrives, I have come to believe that in between these two extremes is peace. ~Author Unknown