Now Is All There Is

Join "Your Simple Path" author Ian Tucker for this inspirational talk as he looks at the frailty of placing your well-being in past or future events and shows you how to finally embrace the present moment so that self-imposed stress and anxiety will fall away.

Transcript

The talk is now is all there is and how we can find peace Harmony contentment and everything that we need in this moment and I guess wherever you are in the world Whatever time it is whether it's light whether it's dark It's now It's always now so this wonderful platform seems to sort of Hammer home the message that I'm hoping to to plant today with you that we all just share the same moment And I've come to know with my work writing and speaking over the last 20 years or so That the more I can just be with you now Allow this moment allow this connection Then the better my life is The problem is I can't simply be here with you now Quite often. I mean, I'm here. Here I am. You can see me. You can hear my voice But even though I have a physical presence I'm off somewhere else and we'll touch on that today most of my suffering in the last 55 years or so Has come because I can't just allow myself this moment And I now know that to be a fact So let's slow down. Let's spend just 15-20 minutes together and allow ourselves to consider to contemplate the benefits of This moment of any moment. So let me start with a graphic and For those of you who have been on my previous talks You know how high-end my graphics are how much money I'll pay for them top-notch creative agency in London Works with me personally to deliver these So here we go folks. Here's the arc of life The arc of life very simple graphic, But very profound So we have here Our starting point. Let's call it birth our first breath and Then we go on this journey Individually together the arc of life Until we arrive at our resting place When we take our final breath, Whatever that means to you, That's probably another talk So here we have the arc of life and our journey And on it I've denoted a cross and that cross is now Now I have no way of knowing where I am on my arc of life This could be 80 years this could be 56 years. This could be 12 years we simply don't know and So if I was to ask you To plot now your arc of life You would actually have a better Chance if you brought a lottery ticket And knowing for sure the longevity Now that alone should be enough to say let's get on with it Let's really live this cross. Let's live this moment But for some reason we don't For some reason we crave certainty For some reason we crave Stability we need to know and if we don't know Then we feel out of control We crave stability in an unstable world folks We crave stability in an unstable world in fact Uncertainty is the only certainty there is and that's our starting point Uncertainty is the only certainty that there is So just spend a moment with the arc of life Just let that sink in Why wouldn't you give yourself this moment you see this cross this moment Contains all of life it contains everything you will ever need and Yet we think that we were in lack that we don't have enough that we don't have the answers That something needs to change and yet this cross this moment Contains the whole of life this moment contains the whole of your life your story your possibilities your opportunities Let's look there. We're doing a two-for-one sale at the creative agency. So I ordered two arc of lives Here's the second one folks Take a look the cross Is in the same place for some reason but instead of birth and death I've now put down two emotions two things that we both we all experience you and I To do with either side of the cross Either side of this moment this moment that contains all of life so here We have a period before the cross Our past your past your story and quite often Emotions or situations associated with before today is regret I Wish I wish I hadn't I wish I had and I'll come on to that in a moment But I'm going to ask you to consider something maybe a takeaway from this talk I'd like you to allow your past To serve its purpose I'd like you to allow your past to serve its purpose So often we push our past down we keep it in the shadows. We're a little bit sometimes even Embarrassed by it sometimes revolted by it But every thought every word every action Everything we've ever experienced or observed in this part before this cross today Makes you and I the person we are It's all in us in this moment, Which contains the whole of life Everything Everything that you have experienced Every second every minute every hour every day every month every year is in you right now It's your story It's my story. Thank heavens for our story, And I'm going to ask you to accept and embrace and Allow it to serve its purpose Every answer you need to put that right is in your story You know exactly What you've done, Right what you've done wrong and it's all relative, You know, The supposed mistakes you've made, You know the missed opportunities and look Where we can put all of that right now One thing we can't do is go back and change anything You could be a billionaire But you can't change a second of what's already happened Acceptance is always the first step to well-being Accept that you're here now Accept that you couldn't buy this experience, But you have it Know what you wouldn't repeat Know what you would do again and be here now with it Actually while we come to this moment, Let me just tell you about Something that they did in New York in Manhattan in 2017 so they put a chalkboard up in Manhattan over a long weekend and At the top of the chalkboard they put my biggest regret is Dot dot dot my biggest regret is dot dot dot And then they laid chalk out and they invited New Yorkers and visitors to write down over that long weekend What their biggest regret was Do you know the two words? There appeared in over 90% of the scribes that were on that board. I didn't I didn't So nobody listed the regrets about the things they did because that's all in the story But when people stopped and contemplated and looked back it was the things they hadn't done That hung heavy and I'm not talking about I didn't get that college degree. I didn't finish that marathon This can be even more simple and profound than that. I Didn't tell that person. I loved them. I Didn't accept my body shape exactly as it was. I Didn't take more time in nature. You see how this starts to play out and Look Where we can put it. All right folks now In this moment it contains all of life everything you've been through and everything that you could achieve But the only time you can do it is now the only seed you can plant is now So what about this bit? Total uncertainty don't switch off. Don't panic total uncertainty the future After this session after today, Maybe the arc of life Ultimate power is now The more we can be in this moment The better your life will be the more you can be in this moment. The better the lives of those you love will be But what of the future But what I've put here isn't this a message or an emotion associated with the future is worry Worry So here's another takeaway from this talk. You may want to write it down Ninety nine point nine percent Write it big folks. Ninety nine point nine percent Rip it out and put it on the wall That's the percentage of things in my 55 years That I have worried about That haven't happened That's the percentage of things in my 55 years That I've worried myself sometimes to the point of illness sometimes to the point of not getting out of bed and One of two things have happened Ninety nine point nine percent of the time It's played out completely different It's played out completely different or it hasn't happened at all. I Think we're the same you and I and I know our minds tend to go to the point one percent and I'll cover that This isn't some happy clapper presentation where nothing ever goes wrong. I get ease The point one percent where you and I have been knocked over Where we didn't think we could get up where we didn't think we could take another step. We did Sometimes it took a while Sometimes we couldn't take that step. Sometimes it was raw. Sometimes we couldn't speak But we do and we have and we did so between the ninety nine point nine percent that doesn't happen and The point one percent that does happen That doesn't leave a lot out and we get through And there's a real frailty to worry a number of times in my life I've almost dropped to my knees and said please God at the end of August make this happen I need it to be just like this. I'll do anything Anything in this moment if you can deliver this at the end of August the end of August comes Something completely different plays out and you think thank God that didn't happen. I was desperate for We're a bit crazy. Aren't we? I am if the cap fits put it on as well And there's an interesting number the British Medical Association in 2019 and the paper is in the public domain prepared a paper and This is the British is the UK United Kingdom They said that over 85 percent of natural death non-accidental death Emanated from a condition that started with stress worry or anxiety 85 out of 100 of us Die because we worry and it doesn't happen. It doesn't happen if it does we get through it You have more courage than you will ever know And when the chips are really down and we're in that moment we deal with it so What can we do folks? How can we start to really recognize this moment? I think even if it just lands with you for contemplation today You can see the frailty of not being around that cross on the arc of life So I can't remember the the University but a university in Portugal did in 2020 did a whole study around stress Anxiety panic and They looked at the effect of being in the moment had on our stress levels And they took a hundred students over a three-month period and just two there's a there's a really interesting paper on it But just two things that they did really struck home to me so first of all They sat a hundred students in a room a bare room for one hour and they wired them up I think it was cortisone adrenaline. However, You measure stress people on this call may know better than me and They sat there no outside influence in a room and naturally over that hour Every single student stress levels increased without exception Why? Because they left the room Of course, They didn't leave the room. They sat in the chair in the bare room for an hour But I started this talk by saying my mind goes elsewhere And it's an interesting thing because when we have a thought there's two ways out of every thought good and bad But we tend to focus on the bad. So that's exactly what happened to those students But here's a wonderful example of something that I've taught for many years mindfulness I then sat the same 100 students in a room and They took a single flower and they placed it in a vase in front of the student The room hadn't changed the student hadn't changed all as I'd done was introduced a single flower into that space and They told the student that they could pick the flower up They could touch the flower They could smell the flower they could experience the flower But for one hour, There was the flower and the student the result was a traumatic decrease in stress around that student the addition of a single flower Now that flower could have been something else. Okay happened to be beautiful and natural and but it was the Introduction of something into that space there are now Enabled that student just like you and I to become mindful another thing That I do quite often Is carry around what I call a now token if you'd been to any of my talks in the UK or workshops Then you will have left with a little red heart. Everybody does I Think I'm crazy as they walk in and I give them a little red heart, But as the sessions unfold that encouraged to keep this with them at all times a simple token this seems to work great and Whenever you stumble across this red heart and it seems to be at just the right time funny that It reminds you just to slow down To be here now to take care of yourself in this moment because there's all that there is So maybe consider that Just take something small manageable in your purse maybe in If it could be glove compartment to the car wherever It's all about slowing down in this moment. So let me just talk to you about a couple of other things To move the uncertainty. We're not stuck in this moment Slowing down doesn't mean that we stop Uncertainty is just energy uncertainties thoughts a pattern Uncertainties emotions that are created because of our thoughts and we can move them in the moment So we're talking to somebody about what worries us. Is it obviously in a in a pro? You know in a in a supported way is a fantastic way To bring us back to this moment to get this energy out So we talk we walk if something's on your mind move be active move the energy Bring yourself back to this moment to write it down So much is now said about the positive Positivity of journaling. I know that to be true Get it out get it out on the page So what I'd like to do if I may is just finish with a very short meditation just three or four minutes That really helped me ground in the moment wherever I am It just takes two or three minutes. You can actually get it almost down to real time So hopefully that will be okay. So I'm just going to ask you to settle in You may be at work. You may be at home. You may be in bed but just invite you to close your eyes if that's possible just for a couple of minutes and In a world of total uncertainty and let's just accept that Let's actually positively accept that. Let's let go of our expectation of being able to control In a world that's completely temporary. Let's go to our breath together for thousands and thousands of years meditation Relaxation and wellness are centered around the breath. It's no coincidence folks It's our one constant in a life of uncertainty So I'm going to ask you just to sit with your breath now With me just for a few seconds in silence and don't think it through Don't worry if it's right or wrong Just be with the flow of your breath in this moment. It's all about slowing down to the natural rhythm of this space this moment Just aligning to what's natural here, So let's now connect with the space that you have chosen Slow down further. A great way to do this is just to sense the air around you Just be with that for a few seconds You may already sense a softness to the air To this space now How it interacts with your body perfectly Your face, Your hair In fact you fit perfectly in this moment You fit perfectly in this moment And what of the silence That you have created in this moment Can you sense a stillness? Just under all of our noise our thoughts, Our emotions This silence, This stillness is our true nature Allow yourself to connect with this moment now And let's go back to our breath just for a few seconds in silence together And when you're ready I invite you to open your eyes and come back to the space that you have chosen in this moment

Reviews

Thank you so much, Ian. That was amazing! And since I was late to your talk today, I’m glad I could hear the same thing in this track! I worry all the time and right now I’m working on a big paper and I constantly worry about whether the teachers are gonna pass me or just make me redo the entire thing when I’ve spent weeks on it ! But that might not happen at all, so I should just focus on my writing! And I bought the e-book version of your book so I’m very excited about that and will also listen to your audiobook version on here.😍 So thank you very much! It’s hard to believe, as you said, that you spent 55 years in worry in your mind unless you’ve only been meditating the past five years?! Meditation also helped me greatly when I was doing it regularly and I love your three minute example at the end of this lecture so I’m going to start working up to my 40 minutes a day again using the breath and awareness version 😍 cause it not only helps with worry, but creates a great spaciousness in one’s mind🙏🙏🙏 so thank you for giving me more inspiration and ways to do so.🥰

I find myself returning to this talk as it distills the essence of being fully present in each “now moment”.

Thought provoking I want to share this with those I love

An inspiring way to begin my day, thank you Ian 🙏🏻

Thank you Ian for this talk, which very gently reminded me how important it is to slow down and appreciate each precious moment. The meditation is beautiful and profound.