Spirituality

Do you spend your time working towards that "one day when…."? One day, when I have enough money I will be happy. One day, when I have the house paid off, I will be able to relax and enjoy myself more. One day, when I get a better job………. These may all seem like good destinations and desires. But when we live in this way we are 'future living'. Waiting to live the life we have always wanted sometime in the future. Unfortunately the way our brains are wired can mean that we are as soon as we arrive at one destination it doesn't seem enough, somehow we are just not as satisfied as we thought we would be and we start going after the next goal.

Don't get me wrong - there is nothing wrong with setting goals and achieving them, but never think that any one goal, will be your ultimate destination, that will result in your ever lasting happiness and fulfilment. There will always be something more - something bigger, better, more powerful, faster etc. that we will desire.

It is not only the big things in life that we 'future live'. Most people spend their days getting things done so they can move on to the next thing. We always have destinations that we have to get to. (They may be physical places we are trying to get to or tasks that we want to achieve). Often, we are not doing the task at hand for its own sake, but for the end result, so we can move on to something else. When we live in this way everything becomes a chore to be done and gotten out of the way and the whole time we are usually thinking about the next chore on the list.

If we live in this way, one night we will wake up in a cold sweat wondering where our life has gone - why we feel so tired, alone and stressed. Was life really meant to be this hard? We ponder. What happened to all the dreams and plans and energy I had when I was a teenager and thought I could conquer the world and right all the wrongs? Somehow it all got lost under a thick blanket of obligation, survival, getting by and striving but never arriving.

So what can you do to bring some joy back into your life? Start enjoying the journey. No matter what you do, do it to the best of your ability with your focus on what you are doing. If you are walking from the house to the car don't hurry with you mind on something else. Slow down a bit, take a deep breath, look around you and see what is going on out in the world. We spend so much time lost in our heads we become unaware of what is going on around us.

To really start to enjoy your life now - no matter what you are doing, you need to learn to slow your racing mind down and become fully aware of the present moment. When you wash the dishes, do it for the joy of washing the dishes and not to get the kitchen clean. This may sound impossible and when you first try it, your mind will wander all over the place and tell you how boring doing the dishes is. But if you stick with it I promise you, you will find a sense of joy and freedom any like anything you have every known.

To be able to do this properly you need to get control of you mind. The best way to do this is with meditation. I cannot go into meditation practices in this short article but have written about meditation in both my books 'Seven Ancient Secrets for a Happy life - chakras' and '14 rules you must know to reduce your stress'. More information on these can be found at www.exaltedliving.com After you can meditate sitting still try to take the silence and stillness with you and into everything you do.

Do yourself a favour and dedicate today to enjoying the journey!

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