After two ducks on a pond have had a disagreement they ruffle up their feathers, swim away from each other and that is that. Now if the ducks had some human elements they would probably swim away thinking ‘who do they think they are! Do they think they own the pond!’ Some would talk to other ducks about what has happened and enrol them in long discussion about how they have been ‘done wrong’. Even a few days later some ducks would still be quacking on about how the other duck had treated them. What a lot of wasted energy. This story reminds us to be aware of where we waste our energy resisting the reality of this moment and using it to relive moments that have already gone.
What are you resisting in this moment? The weather? The fact that it is only Tuesday and not Friday? The supermarket has sold out of the bread you always get (how dare they!) a pedestrian is using the walkway and slowing you down! Spend a day becoming aware of what you are resisting in each moment, really aware. Write them down at the end of the day and have a chuckle to yourself. Each of these moments are opportunities to embrace the moment, accept it and feel at home in it. Imagine a day made up of moments that flow, where you are fully present in each one. How much energy would that release for you? How much space would you have in your mind, body, spirit?
Instead of embracing each moment as now, humans have a tendency to either relive the past, and not generally in a pleasant kind of reflective way. Usually in a let’s relive that negative experience again kind of a way. When they are not conjuring up the past they are often living in the future. This could happen, that will probably happen, this always happens. Anxiety right there. Those things can’t happen in this moment so why not just stay here, now, in this moment. Rather than drinking your morning coffee (or tea) reading the paper, or emails or Facebook or all three at once, drink the coffee. Look at it, taste it, smell it, feel the warmth of it. Enjoy that cup of coffee now. Slow your moments down, you only have so many of them.
