What can nature teach us about the present moment?
I adore nature.
It has so much to teach us about accepting what is.
When did you ever see a flower trying to change its experience; trying to resist the present moment by changing what is?
When the rain is drowning it; the wind battering it; the sun scorching it; it never moves. It accepts whatever is thrown at it.
OK, you might say it has no choice and you’d be right. I mean, a flower can’t get up and move inside or put an umbrella up.
But how often do we try to change our experience when we don’t like it? How often do we metaphorically put up the umbrella or move inside?
Changing our experience; dissatisfaction with the present moment
When we’re in a bad mood how many of you have tried to change it; to turn it into a good mood or try to think positive thoughts? It’s hard work isn’t it? And it’s a bit like trying to change the external weather.
We know we can’t change rain clouds into sun, so why do we try to change ‘stormy’ moods into ‘sunny’ ones?
Basically we try because of a simple misunderstanding.
We think we can change our experience.
In reality all trying to change our experience does, is create more suffering.
The need to want things to be different from what they are can only ever go one way…into more pain.
This week I’ve truly seen this for myself.
I’ve known for a long time that resisting the present moment has created a lot of my suffering. That trying to change my experience was not going to work.
Being open to the ‘good’ & ‘bad’
What I hadn’t seen was a nuance to this.
For years I’ve had poor sleep. Something that for a long time was a major issue for me but having discovered this understanding had become more bearable.
I had accepted that I didn’t sleep well and felt more at peace.
But there was something missing because I still wasn’t sleeping properly; better but not well.
A couple of days ago the insight hit after listening to a video by Rohini Ross. I was trying to be OK with something that I didn’t feel OK with. Does that make sense? So I still wasn’t accepting the present moment.
What I realised was that it was OK to not be OK with not sleeping. That’s a lot of double negatives, but hopefully it makes sense.
The truth was, deep down I wasn’t OK with not sleeping. It sucked. I didn’t want to spend hours of the night awake.
And now that I’ve accepted that I’m not OK with not sleeping guess what? Yup…I’ve been sleeping.
What I hadn’t seen was that I was still resisting what was and trying to change my experience.
I was trying to accept that I wasn’t sleeping but what I actually felt was unhappy about not sleeping. Such a tiny change but with such profound results.
So I guess what I’d like to leave you with is this…
Can you accept the present moment…the ‘good’, the ‘bad’ and the ‘ugly’?
Because when you do, I can guarantee that you’ll have an easier more peaceful time.
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