Self Development - A Journey to here

Feb. 1, 2011 - PRLog -- As you may well have comprehended from previous issues Wisdom and Practical Philosophy is a journey. Along the way we pick up useful jewels that will serve us for the rest of our life.

This week however I would like to introduce a new concept, A JOURNEY TO HERE…

Why do I use this strange title? Well a journey to here is a journey to the here and now, the present moment. Nothing that happens in our life is ever done outside this moment.

If you plan to do something a five o’clock, all the action takes place at five o’clock. So be fully aware that nothing ever gets done apart from in the present moment. Action can only ever take place NOW. Thinking about something is not the same as taking an action. Thinking is generally not a ‘doing task’. You may well have good intentions, but if no action follows all the thinking, then the thinking has been worthless.

So I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you didn’t already know, but consider this for a nice little twist. How true would this statement be in the light of what has just been said? – Real LOVE can only be ever shown in the NOW.

“Tomorrow I’m going to really show my affection,” said a confused individual. But tomorrow never comes…

“I’ll be happy as soon as I’ve paid off that finance,” said someone who continually postpones being happy.

“I’ll be content as soon as all these problems are over with,” said someone who doesn’t realise that problems are a daily event.

“I’m ready to enjoy my retirement,” said a person who couldn’t understand that enjoyment is lived in the now, and when retirement comes along they’ll postpone it again.

The moral would appear to be, that we mustn’t wait for what we can have now.

“What is stopping you from being happy right now?” Go sort it out, your happiness depends on it. Don’t leave it until next week when you’ll be in a happier frame of mind, it will always be a week away!

As we trudge through our life we must notice that what we ‘can’t do one day’ we CAN seem to find energy to do another. Why is that? This is simply because we EXIST in various emotions.

Take this emotional example. Our surroundings and friends are a big factor in this emotional state. Proven when you consider that you’ll take six months to prepare for a two-week holiday (vacation), then no time whatsoever to prepare for most other eventualities. Your destination seems to make the allocation of such time that more justifiable.

These are saying that you may use when you’re struggling to keep in the present moment:-

It’s not my day today…

I’m having a bad hair day…

I’ve gotten out of the wrong side of the bed this morning…

Everything seems to be going wrong…

I can’t get my head around this problem…

Everything I touch just falls apart…

I’m all fingers and thumbs today…

Everything’s going from bad to worse…

Nothing has gone right for me today…

…Plus many more quaint little descriptions.

When you misplace your car or house keys, what was happening at the moment you put them down? You were working on automatic pilot. You wasn’t mentally in the present moment, you had drifted off thinking about a problem or what you intended doing next. We can all laugh at these incidences when we find our keys, but the underlying problem of not living in the present moment can be costly.

I’ve heard people say, “I’ve got so much debt it’s making me poorly, both from the extra stress and the anxiety of not knowing where the money will come from to pay the next instalment.”

We must accept there is always a course of action to resolve a dilemma. But without any ACTION nothing happens. You may have the most superb plan, but without action in the present moment the whole plan falls apart.

When we THINK, PLOT and PLAN, the journey we must take afterwards is back to the here and now to put them into practice.

Here is a short excerpt to illustrate the points that have been made so far.

A STORY TO LIVE BY

My brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sister's bureau and lifted out a tissue-wrapped package. "This," he said, "is not a slip. This is lingerie." He discarded the tissue and handed me the slip. It was exquisite; silk, handmade and trimmed with a cobweb of lace. The price tag with an astronomical figure and it was still attached.

"Jan bought this the first time we went to New York, at least 8 or 9 years ago. She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion. Well, I guess this is the occasion." He took the slip from me and put it on the bed with the other clothes we were taking to the mortician.

His hands lingered on the soft material for a moment, then he slammed the drawer shut and turned to me.

"Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you're alive is a special occasion."

(by Ann Wells, printed in the Los Angeles Times)

Don’t misunderstand the purpose of this editorial, it is not to make you spend all your savings and have a blast of a time, but to wake up and see what every moment can offer. Don’t delay such things as love and affection, do them now. Don’t postpone happiness, you can have it now.

by: http://wisdom-and-philosophy.com/

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Andria Bolton
Editor, Author and Businesswomen
Wisdom-and-Philosophy.com and How-to-be-Happy.co.uk
http://glassesz.com/