Hello everyone, welcome to my weekly audio journal.
Today I would like to share a quote by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk.
"To live in the present moment is a miracle. The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment. To appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now."
I think often we are encouraged to be more present, more aware, more grounded but at the same time we aren't really given the understanding of how to do that. Through my limited experience, one way that I hope to become more present and more aware. Is that I've realised that when you ask the mind a question. Generally it will automatically try to give you an answer and so a question that I ask to help me become more aware and present is to begin with my senses. I start with my visual sense and ask, what don't I see? And I look around.
When I asked that question my mind automatically starts to look for things, that I haven't seen before. I've become more aware of my surroundings, I start to become more present in this moment. And then I might move on to my sense of hearing. I close my eyes and then I ask myself what don't I hear? I give myself a moment to settle and then I start to notice sounds that I didn't notice before.
My awareness expands, my presence expands. And then when I'm eating sometimes to expand my experience, I asked myself what don't I smell or what don't I taste?
I hope that you ask yourself some of these questions this coming week and hopefully it will expand your experience of becoming more present and more aware. And that it will help you appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.
Thank you, everyone for listening.
