How do I stay in the present moment and enjoy the detachment from emotions and events?
How do I reach that state of peace and calm within me that allows me to surrender to life and make good profit from the events and experiences unfolding in front of me?
The best and effective way to be in the present moment is through conscious breathing. Concentrating on the action of breathing. ‘Breathing in, I am aware that I am breathing in, breathing out, I am aware that I am breathing out.
The best way of breathing is the abdominal breathing. This way new oxygen and new energy can reach every single corner of your body, so that no stagnation is happening. The energy flows within the body and the organs are recharged of new oxygen, working at their best. An oxygenated body is a healthy body that will remotely get sick. We are a splendid machine.. if we tune it with awareness!
When we are children, none really teach us the right way to breath nor to stay concentrated in our breath in every single action we are in, in every single step we take. None really teaches us the importance to breath correctly and in awareness. And with the years we forget it. And as an adult, we learn to run after the time, the work, the activities, we are often stressed and the breath starts to get shorter and higher.
Then we go to a yoga class and discover that our way of breathing is completely wrong. It is too short and thoracic. The teacher tells us to stay in the posture and breath deeply and we struggle. There, it starts our real training. Yoga is a perfect platform to work on our awareness. And on the contrary, just if we practice guided by our breath, we can really take the best benefits from a yoga session.
Staying tuned to the breath allow us to feel each posture and use it to unlock our tensions. It allows us to be there, in the posture and not been taken away by our thoughts. The mind gives up and finally slows down, leaving space to the Essence voice and its divine messages.
So first step, is to observe our breathing; to inhale and exhale with awareness. Second step is to practice the abdominal breathing and observe the body movement of our breath. The abdomen will inflate during the inhalation and will empty completely during the exhalation.
Bringing our attention to the breath, will allow us to focus and concentrate and the mind will follow us. There won’t be space for thoughts that take us away back to the past or running into an uncertain future.
When we are trapped in the past, we can feel emotions of something we did or did not do and we might spend time and energy in something that is already passed. Concentrating in something that is not there yet, we get stuck into a desire, a dream, which is not there yet and might not be; with the consequent suffering for expectations that do not always meet the reality. The only certainty is in our present. So, think about the past with detachment, think about the future with detachment, live the present with all yourself through conscious breathing.