Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott and I'm standing with the sun warming my face beside the stream that runs down from above my house.
It's called the Ludbrook and I've just stepped a little way away from it and I'm sheltering beside a little hillock because it's quite a blowy old day but I can see the sun sparkling off the water of the stream as it makes its way down off the moorland and it's glistening silver in the sunshine and today I'm reflecting on the power of the present moment,
The power of being in the now and it was sparked by a conversation with a friend and we were talking about being in the present moment and she explained that she understands the power of being in the present moment.
She can really find that she's at peace with the past but she said I do get lost when I think about the future,
I get lost in agitated thinking and I can really relate to this,
Really relate to that sense of getting lost either in things that have happened or things that I think might happen in the future.
I get tricked by my thinking and thought and forget of the power of being in the present moment and the power of being in the now and she said so wisely that when she gets lost in unsettled thinking and particularly for her as she said it's about imagining things that may or may not happen in the future,
She says to herself am I all right now,
Am I okay now and I love that she asks herself that question and it's a question I think I'll be asking myself,
Whether I get lost in thoughts of the past or thoughts in the future,
I'll ask the question am I okay now.
The other day my mum who's very elderly and frail,
She took a tumble at night and luckily my brother was staying overnight and we do take in turns of looking after her and if possible we stay overnight to support her and he heard a crash and a bang and went downstairs to investigate and found her on the floor unable to get up so he helped her up and checked she was okay and just helped to get back into bed and as I heard that story my heart leapt,
I felt this sickness in my throat because I love my mum dearly and feel very sad that she struggles so much with her mobility and not only that she struggles with her memory as well,
She's got dementia and I realised that there was so much that I could get lost in when it came to thought and thinking about the future and worrying,
Things like what happens if she falls,
What happens if no one was there,
What happens if she breaks a limb or breaks her hip,
What would happen if,
What happens if she needs to go into a care home,
It was a myriad of what ifs,
What if-eries that were poised to dance in my mind and trample in my mind and cause fear in my mind and I know so well that I notice it and know that there is no answer in getting lost in fearful stories of the future and as my friend wisely says the question to ask is am I okay now,
Right now and then from this place of now as I settle into this calm wisdom and I see my thoughts going a bit crazy but I'm not lost in them,
I'm not believing them,
I'm not basing my life on fearful thinking,
When I come to this now,
This place of presence I'm able to see things with clarity and to take one step at a time,
So today is a reminder of when you get lost in fearful thinking either imagining the future or getting lost in troubling thoughts from the past,
Ask yourself the question am I okay now and as you settle into that nowness,
That presence,
That clarity,
When you feel that clear-headedness,
That's a good place to then take the next step.
I'd love to know your reflections on today,
On the power of being in the present moment and let me know your comments and don't forget of course to join me again tomorrow for another five minutes in nature.
