29 Dec 2014 9:46 PM

Please take a moment to think about your typical week. What is it like?

Think about what you do when you wake up Monday morning. What do you think of? How do you feel when you wake up? What do you generally do that day?

Now please take a few moments to think about your Tuesdays, Wednesdays and the rest of the week.

What do you usually do? How do you feel, when you do what you do?

Please do not continue until you think about your week. It could be valuable for you.

From all the minutes and hours you were awake, what percentage would you say you were present, in the moment and aware of you, your surroundings and others?

In other words, how often do you think you were not living routinely? How often were you living like a headless chicken, running from place to place without checking in with yourself to be aware of every bite of food you ate, of every kiss you gave and of every word you spoke. How much did you savor these experiences as you lived them?

Please give it percentage number. Do you think you were present and in the moment 1% of the time? Assuming you sleep eight hours (which is a high number for many), you were awake 16 hours a day. Of those 16 hours, how many do you think you were present, aware of your body, your mind, your emotions, your surroundings and others?

Your answer___________.

If you are like most, the percentage is not very high. Why? What does this mean?

Well, let's explore what it means.

If we are not aware of ourselves as we live, we may live like robots doing what we do. We can get lost in our routine; we may assume we know what the food we ate tasted like, and we may take for granted the people in our lives, assuming they will always be with us.

Living like this may seem normal, but is not as rich as it can be.

Imagine what it would like to be totally present and aware of your self when you kiss a loved one during the day. Maybe it is your partner, a parent, a daughter or son.

Please take a moment to imagine you are about to kiss someone you love. But before you do, you settle within yourself: you become present, not worrying about the future and without any guilt about the past. Your mind is not wandering, it is totally in the moment.

Try it on.

Now, in this present state, imagine you kiss your loved one.

Don't continue until you try it on.

What was it like? How did you feel?

I don't know what it may have been for you, but for me the experience became much more intense; it became beautiful and I felt my love and caring for the person. It was so deep that for a moment I felt a little fear, but I decided to continue and even be more present, while I felt their skin on my lips and felt their presence with mine.

Would you like to try it again? Yes!

Ok, let's settle within and feel calm, thinking of nothing but the person you want to kiss. You see them, you may feel them. You hold their hands, or maybe you hug them. You feel their body close to you. You feel this in your body. And now, give them a kiss.

Did you like it?

Most likely you did.

Imagine you can live like this any time you choose. You can choose to be present as you eat your favorite dish, as you hug or make love, as you spend time with your children at home or at school, or as you experience your honeymoon or your 50th wedding anniversary.

It is up to us to choose to live without any awareness, or to live as if every moment is precious, because we recognize how quickly each moment is gone. Remember, one day we are going to be gone from this earth.

And if we continue somewhere else, it would be great to remember every moment, every choice, every love, and every tear. It would be great to live with such attention to detail that we see our mistakes and our triumphs with joy and gratefulness. We would be able to do this because we were present as we lived our life.

Let's be deep in our experiences, let's savor each moment, let's be grateful for our awareness; it is the window to our soul. And our soul is the deepest and truest of who we are. Would you want to get to know this self and express it in your life?

I think you would, as I do.

Let's do it together and make of this world a land of the aware and awakened. The land of those who can see not only with their eyes but also from within, and of those who can feel not only with their bodies but with their soul. This would be the land of the joyful and free, grateful and kind.

Thank you for participating.

With love,

PRESENT & AWARE