The Land of NOW Travel Guide is here to help you and your young readers be in the NOW.
It can be so easy to miss out on the NOW. When you are stuck in your thoughts, you don’t get to enjoy the present moment. Your mind can run amok, leaving you lost in a haze of mental chatter, causing you to miss out on the beauty of the present, the NOW.
Land of NOW will help you clear the useless thoughts you don’t need so you can be in the only moment we really have, the NOW.
Click on the image below to see a large version of the map.
“Even though we’re both here in the very same place,
Sharing this very same spot,
Your view of the NOW is unruly and wild
Thanks to your unending thoughts.”
The first thing you must do to be in the moment is to recognize when you aren’t in the NOW, when your thoughts have taken over. Are you paying full attention to what is happening around you? Do you remember the conversation you just had with someone? Are you feeling anxious or sad, or even frustrated and unwilling to accept what is happening around you?
How to Be Here NOW
Take moments throughout the day to pull yourself back to NOW. You can do this by simply noticing something around you or a sound that you hear.
“Yeah but these thoughts… don’t I need all of them?”
I blurted so very confused.
“‘Cuz I’m always thinking. My brain’s always full.
Don’t ALL of my thoughts have a use?”
Yes, we like to think that we need all of these thoughts rambling around in our heads. But the truth is, just because it showed up (to take us out of NOW) doesn’t mean that it’s useful. In fact, if you really listen to the thoughts you are having, you will realize that most of them don’t have a use – other than to fill your brain with useless, meaningless babble.
How to Be Here NOW
Give your mind permission to stop, even for just a moment. Let it take a break, you will be fine without it’s yammering on and on. You will find that when you give your brain a break, you feel much better, and the world didn’t come crashing down around you when you stopped thinking, did it. And again, come back to NOW by doing something simple, like wiggling your fingers and toes.
“To uncover the NOW and get rid of this ruckus
You need to stay quiet and hear
Each of the thoughts that you’re constantly having
And let them begin to appear.”
As you begin to recognize that you are stuck in your thoughts, and not in the NOW, take a moment to hear what is happening in your head. When our thoughts are in charge, what we usually experience is this constant background noise of chatter, bouncing from one topic to the next, doing nothing but distracting us from NOW.
But when you take a moment to actually HEAR the thoughts you are having, you can begin to pull them apart, to hear them individually. And from there, listen to them, and as you do this, you can realize that you AREN’T your thoughts. You are the observer that is hearing them. Only then can they move on.
How to Be Here NOW
Listen to the thoughts. Let them become separate from one another, and from you. Listen to your thoughts as if they were someone else talking to and at you. Ask your young ones what they are thinking (or fretting) about, they might not even realize that they are thinking. Let them give each thought a voice.
Let all these thoughts become something other than you.
“The first thoughts I saw looming there in the haze
Brought with them worry and fret.
They made me quite nervous of what was to come,
Of a future that wasn’t here yet.”
Is it the future that is causing you to worry about a time that isn’t even here yet? Well, do these future thoughts offer a plan or something that you can do now to affect the future? If so, then take those steps NOW to help alleviate those worries. If not, then please understand that you can’t do anything in this moment so worrying does no good. Take what is useful and applicable to the NOW from those future thoughts, then let them move on.
How to Be Here NOW
Talk about your future worries. When you point them out, they lose power. Ask yourself, and your young ones if what they are really worried about is even true. Then let them move past.
But, if there a step or action that you can take today, in the NOW to help the future you are worrying about, do it! Make a plan, take steps, and get ready for the future, but do it here in the NOW.
“The next thoughts that appeared were of things from my past,
Like errors that still caused regret.
And ways I was treated that still made me mad.
All these times I could just not forget.”
Does the past still gnaw at you, causing sorrow or anger over what happened or how you behaved? Well, the past is over and you cannot go back to change what occurred. But, you keep that pain alive by thinking about it.
How to Be Here NOW.
If you are still angry about how someone else treated you, you need to let it go by forgiving them. I guarantee you they don’t even remember. The only person you hurt is YOU by holding on to the past.
If you are mad at yourself for the way you behaved or what you did, forgive yourself. You probably did the best you could with what you had or knew at the time. Just learn from it and do things better next time.
“The last of these thoughts that were blocking the NOW
Were insisting that things should all shift.
They wanted it their way; to change what was fact,
And did not like what IS and were miffed.”
Another BIG set of thoughts that keeps us from NOW is when we don’t want to accept what is. If you are spending time thinking about how you don’t like this, or don’t like that, or wish things were different, then you are not in the NOW. When you go against What IS, you only cause yourself more pain and angst. In order to be in the NOW, you have to accept reality.
How to Be Here NOW
Let go of trying to control what is, and accept what is really happening around you. If there is something YOU can actually do to make things better, then do it. Don’t just complain about what is.
The best and easiest way to be in the NOW, is to be grateful for what you actually have, what really is, and appreciate the NOW. Make a list of all the things you are grateful for.
“You see, my dear friend, you are always in NOW
So please do not waste one more minute
Being stuck in your thoughts, missing out on what’s here.
The NOW’s all there is so be in it.”
The good news is that NOW is always with us, but we can easily be pulled out of the present. So if you find that you are feeling worried, upset, or have missed out on what just happened, then you aren’t in the NOW, and your useless thinking has come back.
How to Be Here NOW
But returning to the NOW can be as simple as taking a big deep breath in, and feel the air fill your lungs. Or, just notice something around you, in the NOW. Something that can bring your attention to here. Focus on the music you have playing, or notice the wind blowing the leaves outside, or even just stretch your fingers. All of these simple activities can help you come back to NOW.
Here is one last travel tip to take with you:
“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.”
―
