Guess what I learned while I was visiting the Azores and mainland Portugal a few weeks ago? I learned about living in the present moment.
It's one thing to read about living in the present moment but it's another to actually experience it.
Sure it's easier to be in the moment when enjoying a vacation. There's gelato, street musicians, friendly people, charming accents, lovely architecture, beautiful scenery. But there are still thoughts that can creep in to preoccupy us. For me, these thoughts could be around the overwhelming list of work projects I'm excited to act on. Or that a big unexpected expense just popped into our life that needed our attention. But it was so nice not to dwell on the "what-ifs".
Our thoughts are always a choice. We can allow our thoughts to grind away about a multitude of what-ifs. Or, we choose to let go of thinking about the things we can do nothing about.
Good for me that my thoughts weren't somewhere else while I was walking down the many charming cobblestone alleyways in Portugal. Good, because I allowed myself to more fully enjoy those charming cobblestone alleyways. I did wonder if we'd come home to a ton of weeds and hoped the deer hadn't chewed our plants to the ground. But other than those thoughts I wasn't inventing worrisome scenarios. Instead, I was in the moment for 17 days enjoying one moment after another.
Why was this significant? Because I felt great. And when I feel great that's when the magic in my life happens.
Living in the present moment is not a new concept. There's "be here now", "mindfulness", "living more fully in the moment", and on and on the nomenclature goes. In spite of all the literature on this topic, I didn't understand how important this was. Usually, I experience one present moment after another but my being, my thoughts, my self, my awareness are for the most part somewhere else.
For many years, I hadn't yet figured out the toll it was taking to simultaneously scatter myself across past memories, worry about current experiences, and anticipate future scenarios.
Being more aware now of the difference between living and not living more fully in the present moment I feel the difference quite strongly. It's the difference between being serious, anxious, and feeling lighter, calm, joyful.
Here are 5 things I learned on my last vacation about present moment living.
1-What does NOT living in the moment or present moment living mean? I can only tell you what I learned about not being present in my own life.
I liked living in my mind because I thought I was working things out for the better. Being a thinker and analytical was my go-to. And there was no shortage of disturbing experiences to try and work out in my head.
Another go-to was rehashing past conversations such as, "what if I'd said this instead of that"? Or, I invented and directed a new scenario in my head that would go oh so much better than reality had. In fact, my often insecure ego was making negative scenarios up in my head. I wasn't someone who let things roll off of me. Instead, I gripped on to them and thought and thought. That made for a lot of lower negative emotions that came along with creating untrue assumptions and being stuck in past experiences. Not a great habit to allow for lightheartedness and possibilities that were best for me.
2- What might we allow for when we live more fully in the moment? No doubt about it, to me living in the present moment allows for more joy in life and it's easier to experience intuition.
It's so easy to let our ego and our brain entertain us for hours. But so much of that keeps us from enjoying a moment. During my vacation, I just naturally enjoyed myself. My husband and his family have a great sense of humor. I laughed more. I found myself feeling grateful and appreciating the people I was with. I felt so much love for my husband and love for his family as well. It was mostly all rainbows and ponies but I was still me. I was more able to let the insignificant annoyances roll off of me.
This is one of my favorite benefits of being in the moment. When my head was more clear of aggravating thoughts and I was feeling lighter, calmer, and more joyful I more consciously benefit from my intuition. On our vacation intuitive guidance was apparent. One day stands out in particular. I followed my intuition to discover a neighborhood we hadn't yet explored. Our last day was such a gift as we found fewer tourists, a neighborhood where locals were enjoying a tiny festival with food and music. There were more cafes and more alleyways and viewpoints that afforded gorgeous views high above the city.
We can adopt the practice of letting go on any ordinary day. In centering oneself, clearing thoughts, and focusing on breathing, it's easier to hear and follow intuitive guidance. It's particularly helpful to receive intuitive guidance during a life struggle.
3- What about those not-so-great moments that pop up occasionally in a day? We have a choice here as well. It's a choice to allow ourselves to be derailed or to stay in our lovely vibe.
Of course, choosing well becomes more challenging as our experiences become more challenging. But we still always have a choice in how we process even our more challenging experiences.
Feeling low at times is normal. It's ok to feel sad when something sad happens. We're human and fear and discouragement will show up at some point. Being in the present moment is for all moments, the joyful moments all the way to the most challenging moments. But our ego and lower energy thoughts don't have to overtake us when we do feel low.
4- Present moment living teaches us to let go of attachment to the outcome. As I had to when I discovered it was nearly impossible to find the kind of meals I like to eat. I dare you to be a tourist and vegan on a vacation in the Azores. I double dare you.
I had to let it go and I knew that once home again I'd get back to the way I prefer to eat.
I "failed" a lot. Oh well.
Eating well is a big deal to me. My belief system is that everything carries a vibration as does food. My choices around food relate to how I feel and that is no small thing. Food affects my mood/vibration, my health, and because of all that, it can assist me in how I'm being.
Usually, I benefit from no dairy, sugar, gluten, or meat. Vegetables (other than a starchy root veggie or two) were scarce as we toured around. And my willpower around avoiding desserts flew out the window. It seemed I was on a quest to find the best passion fruit pudding in the Azores and the best gelato and Pastel de Natas in Porto. Natas were everywhere. To put it into perspective our Airbnb was directly across from a cafe named "The World Needs More Natas". I agree.
But it would have been nearly impossible to enjoy our vacation if I was feeling disingenuous or mad at myself for breaking one of my well-intentioned habits. The Azores are beautiful, unspoiled, with few people. Of course, it was worth getting off my usual foods.
As someone who for most of my life tried to master perfection, and was tenacious and intense I'm discovering something about those supposed "qualities". I'm learning that perfectionism, tenaciousness, and intensity don't benefit me around my work, eating, or anything else.
Side note: There were many vegan/vegetarian restaurants in Porto (in mainland Portugal). Here's a review of our favorite in case you're in Porto one day.
5- Our thoughts, habits, and patterns inform the life we experience. I believe we're here on this Earth to learn, spiritually grow and evolve our souls, and enjoy this life even with all its challenges. We're creative beings and we're to come together to create more light and love by offering our gifts and/or collaborating. Lofty and unbelievable as it sounds, each of us benefits mankind.
This point gets me on my soapbox. Trying not to but I really want to talk about this point.
To me, we're always collaborating on an energetic level whether we're aware of this or not.
Being present and an active participator and creator in our life not only assists us but it's fascinating. But as we seek growth through new perspectives and beneficial habits it's still possible to get in our own way. It's possible to slow down the benefits we so desire.
Nowadays when I do a face-plant I try to discover the lesson but give myself permission to be ok with face-planting. Not to be overly sappy here but living in the moment is also about liking and loving all the parts of myself, especially the part of me that's not aceing something. And to try to inject some humor in it all. To give myself a break when I see "oh wow, I've done it again, I've just eaten my 20th Nata all the way to why did I say something so harmful?" Of course, I'm not always able to lighten up about myself or a particular situation. Especially when my behavior goes to the far end of the range tipping to not good behavior.
But I do know that living in the moment and lightening up is good for us and our world.
Thankfully being on vacation isn't conducive to staying on top of current event news. Experiencing laughter, appreciation, gratefulness, love, and joy will do more for the collective consciousness than watching the news and cultivating fear, hopelessness, and anger. One approach to life creates beneficial energy and the other just adds more negativity and lower energy to whatever it is we're upset about. In other words, lower energy only ends up contributing to and feeding the very thing we wish were better.
It's especially important to be mindful of our energy given all that's going on in our world and in the U.S. right now. We have a responsibility in how we want to use our energy. It's that choice I've been speaking about.
If we want to make a positive difference in the world, to lighten up and enjoy our lives, it may take kicking some of our usual habits to the curb. We can instead think and behave more expansively. There's always a bigger picture here.
This means taking some positive action to contribute our solutions. Thoughts and words are more beneficial if they carry loving energy.
When we desire more peace and love in the world, we will need to create more peace and love within ourselves. We're that significant. Our thoughts, our energy, our actions, our choices, while individual, all contribute to the collective consciousness.
Sometimes there's certain laziness and resistance I have when stepping up to my responsibility in how I'm being on this planet.
I know I'm not the only one. Many of us want things to be better but we're not willing to see our own significance. It's easier to just gripe and go all negative. We feel like we're on the high road when we gripe about certain people and the world's most dire challenges. It isn't the high road. It's lazy. We give our power to our politicians and heart-centered celebs but we don't recognize it in ourselves. We're disappointed when things don't improve, but what did we actually create?!
We will do more for ourselves, the world, our spiritual journey, our human experience if we take steps to allow for and cultivate more joy in our lives by living more fully in the present moment. It's not necessary to travel to practice and experience this. Our life is an adventure of present moments whether there are charming cobblestone streets, Pastel de Natas, or not.
That's why I'm trying to practice living more fully in the moment wherever I am.
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If you've never heard of the Azores and want to know where they are here's a map.
Here's another vacation post, this one on mindfulness.