Honor the Present Moment

A guided 20-minute mindfulness of breath practice inspired by Nancy Levin’s famous quote, “Honor the space between no longer and not yet.”

Transcript

So,

To begin this meditation,

Take a moment to focus on your posture,

Finding your seat and rooting down through your sit bones in order to rise taller through your spine,

Allowing your spine to be relaxed,

The natural curves of the spine to be there,

But at the same time feeling a sense of upliftedness through the spine,

As if there were a string attached to the very crown of your head gently lifting you upwards,

And it's from the foundation of your sit bones that you root down in order to rise taller through your posture.

Roll your shoulders up and back and down and allow them to completely relax.

You could just very slightly tuck your chin in so that you find a bit of extra length in the back of your neck.

Go ahead and close your eyes if you wish and begin to turn your attention within,

Noticing first of all the natural rhythm of your breath.

However you happen to be breathing in this moment,

Just notice the sensations of the breath.

And that might include the expansion and contraction of your lower belly and your rib cage,

Your chest.

You might also include the sensations that are more subtle at the tip of your nose,

On your upper lip.

As you breathe in through your nose,

You feel the air coming in and it's slightly cooler,

And as you breathe out through your nose,

You feel the air going out and it's slightly warmer.

So really begin to pay attention to this level of detail of sensation.

And allow the breath to be an anchor that holds your attention here and now in the present moment.

And any time that your attention decays and the mind wanders away from the breath,

Away from the present moment,

Just notice that.

Breathe very gently with a friendly attitude towards yourself.

Bring yourself back,

Back to this moment,

Back to this breath and start fresh.

And as you rest your attention on the natural rhythm of the breath,

You might notice that there's a naturally relaxing quality to the breath,

Particularly to the out breath.

As you exhale,

There's a sense of going out with the breath,

Relaxing,

Letting go.

So the theme of this particular meditation session is inspired by a quote that has been posted many times on social media,

Often without attribution,

But I believe it originally came from a life coach named Nancy Levin.

And it's very short and simple to remember and it goes like this.

Honor the space between no longer and not yet.

Honor the space between no longer and not yet.

So this is great life advice in general in terms of letting go of things from the past that no longer serve us and not getting too caught up in concerns about the future,

Hope and fear and projection,

But in general living to the best of our ability in the space in between,

Which is the present moment.

But this is also a wonderful meditation instruction because what we notice very often in meditation is how much time we spend in the no longer and in the not yet.

When we sit down in meditation,

We're sort of looking at our experience under a magnifying glass and we can see these patterns very vividly.

But any time that we are with the breath that's happening now and our attention is abiding in the present moment,

Then we're resting in that little space between no longer and not yet.

A little space that's always unfolding and manifesting as the present moment.

So,

We're resting in that little space between no longer and not yet.

But what does it mean to honor the space between no longer and not yet in terms of meditation?

First of all,

To honor something means to give it our full attention.

By resting your attention on the breath that's unfolding in each moment,

Tethering your mind to the present moment and not allowing it to drift into the no longer and the not yet,

You're honoring the present moment.

You're honoring this moment of your life,

Which is all you ever really have.

Things that no longer and the not yet exist largely in our imaginations.

We may spend a great deal of time in our ordinary lives,

Lost in thoughts about that which has already passed,

And feeling pride or regret about things that are no longer.

And we may also spend a great deal of time thinking about things that have not yet come to pass,

And feeling hope or fear,

And making plans and daydreaming about the not yet.

Both of these places,

The no longer and the not yet,

Are unreal.

The only thing we ever really have is this moment,

This little space between no longer and not yet.

And meditation is the art of learning to abide in that little space.

And when the mind wanders out of it as it inevitably does,

Gently bringing ourselves back,

Starting again.

But to honor something means not only to give it our full attention,

But also to give it our respect and appreciation.

So as you rest your attention in this present moment,

Noticing this breath,

You can feel a sense of appreciation for your breath,

The source of life itself,

The first thing you did when you were born,

And the thing that continuously sustains life right up until the moment we leave this world.

So don't just notice this breath,

But really appreciate it.

Honor it.

And honor this moment of your life.

Appreciate the fact that you woke up this morning,

That you're sitting here.

You have the opportunity to practice meditation.

You have many gifts and blessings to appreciate in this moment,

In this little space between no longer and not yet.

There's much to be honored.

The other word from this line that I find very revealing and instructive is the word space.

As you continue to rest your attention on the breath,

Abiding in the present moment,

In the little space between no longer and not yet,

That little space begins to open up.

You begin to relax into a kind of open,

Spacious quality of the present moment.

A natural sense of spaciousness that's always right here,

Right now.

And instead of thinking of the space between no longer and not yet as some kind of razor-thin edge,

We could instead think of it as an infinitely unfolding space.

And in that infinitely unfolding space,

We can rest our awareness and simply let go and move on.

There's much to be honored about this subject.

Honor the space between no longer and not yet.

Honor the space between no longer and not yet.

Reviews

Thank you for this present moment journey into the Now. A wonderful quote too. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

A deeper look at the little yet infinite space - NOW. Namaste. Thank you.:)

Enjoyable. Thank you.

Great meditation.

Ithank you for this perspective.

Woah. Deep into that one - thank you Dennis.

Very useful, gratitude to Nancy Levin and you

Very nice except for the abrupt ending

I really like this meditation with the pauses and his soft voice. A new favorite

Truly inspiring, thank you Dennis

Yes ends abruptly and there is a little background noise but it makes it honest and real. I don't mind. One of my favourites.

This will definitely help with me practicing my mindfulness. Thank you :)

Lovely meditation to start my day

Lovely! Thank you

Soothing & calming

Very interesting thought... The space between no longer and not yet.

Thank you

Exactly what I needed!

Ended upruptly, but loved this one. Big fan of quotes and teachings, and this gave me perspective on some things I do. Thanks!

Wow this has really helped me