Are you here now?

 I am living here and now.The blessing of my life is that I am concentrating totally on the present moment. And I want to be because there is nothing but the present moment. 

Paulo Coehlo (The Alchemist) 

Are you here now? 

Are you present in this very moment and this very space of what you call your life?  Or are you up in your head somewhere remembering what happened yesterday and anticipating what will happen tomorrow? At this very moment are you  starring in some drama that you also produced and directed, disconnected from what is actually unfolding off this imaginary set? Do you even know where you are or what you are doing?  Can you feel your body connecting to the earth or the surface you are on? Can you feel your breath going in and going out? Are you aware of your heart beating?  Can you hear what is going on around you? Can you feel it?  Are you here now?

Are you here now?, is a question I frequently ask myself these days.  

I will often catch myself waking up from a fugue, where I was lost, for God knows how long,  in some long winded narrative in my head, far away  from  here, far away from now. Thinking, thinking, thinking and living Life through this thick veil of  thinking, rather than directly.   I may be walking or driving somewhere, doing some chores, or even meditating when I suddenly realize..." Man, I am doing it again". I will  then gently bring myself back...focus on my breath, what is happening at that moment, the sensations of my body and any feelings I may be experiencing at that moment of realization. These moments of realizing that I was somewhere else are becoming more and more frequent.  I am becoming more and more aware that I was or am lost...out of my here and out of my now so  I can come back to direct experience.  

Waking Up,  if Only for A Moment

The other night I was washing my hands in the bathroom and I caught myself in this surreal mental space again. I brought myself back out of my head and into the moment.  I felt the  water on my hands, I could smell the  soap...and I looked into the mirror, directly into my eyes. It was like, "Wow!  This is me, not the heroine/victim in my head  This isn't "my" life!  It is just Life. This is not "my" reality! It is just reality.  Cool!"  

Then for some reason, I found it all so funny and I began to laugh. You would have thought I dropped a hit of acid or something. I didn't lol...I just woke up, if only for amoment 

I really, really want to live Life in the here and now and not in my head.  I want to be increasingly  present in my day to day experiences. So now, throughout the day, I will ask myself that question, "Are you here, now?" and I will check to see if I am in my head or in Life. 

Just recognizing that we are or were  lost in thought is a great acheivement.  Everytime we realize that we were "thinking"we create a bit of distance between us and that thinking. And it is in that space where presence can be found. 

Maybe we could set little alarms on our phones to go off every hour at least ( well maybe not when we are sleeping) as a prompting to ask that question: Are you here now?. 

Hmm!  What do you think? 

All is well!