awareness
Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness. - James Thurber This quote caught my eye recently, and has become the tag line to my emails at work.
A lot of the tag lines I use in my emails are intended to make other people think, although the people they’re usually aimed at don’t get it or don’t read it. In this case, this one is a reminder for me. I tend to get wrapped up in my thoughts a lot, but I’ve noticed that when I stop thinking about however many things happen to be on my mind at the moment and just notice where I am, a lot of the stress I put on myself goes away. Mainly because whatever situation I’m thinking about isn’t what is going on at that moment; something else is and I’m not paying attention to it. And when I stop thinking so much, I tend to be happier. Have you ever tried to brood or worry when you stop thinking about something and concentrate on what you’re doing at that moment? I don’t seem to be able to do it.
I think this quote from a book I like very much is appropriate. “There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man’s whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing left to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.” From Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai, by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, translated by William Scott Wilson.
Simply put, this means to me that when I live in the present moment, nothing else exists but that moment and what I am doing. There are no thoughts of I have to do this or that, because I am doing what the moment requires, and I am fully present at that place at that time. Everything else waits. I also become aware of the judgements and labels I put on things, and the value I assign to them, good or bad. In those moments, I become fully myself. And that is, perhaps, the best anyone can hope for.