Hello,
Welcome.
My name is Lew Redman.
Thanks for being here.
I am excited to share with you today a mantra that I believe can help you live with not only more presence,
But a wakeful presence,
A presence that has a vital quality to it that is seeing rightly and is seeing the ever new unfolding of the moment.
I'm going to share a little story.
Earlier in the year,
I made a big move across the country,
Driving from New Jersey to Oregon.
We landed in a temporary place out in a country setting on the outskirts of town.
We stayed there until finding a place in town that we can call home.
Before we left,
I went for a run on one of the local trails one last time to say goodbye to the land and thank them for being our welcome pad into a new city.
On my run,
I remembered all the other times I had ran that trail,
Specifically one of the first times when I stopped to perform my own ceremony,
Announcing to the trees that my wife and I had arrived.
As I was running,
I realized my mind was clouded by my past experience of the trail.
It dawned on me that this was getting in the way of being fully present during that run on that particular morning.
While there is significance in remembering the past during the present,
I could recognize that my thoughts were creating a veil between me fully experiencing the moment and the trail exactly as it is now.
The mantra came to me,
Now is only new.
While being here now is not a new concept,
Repeating these words in this order helped my mind break out of past thinking and instead savor the newness of the moment,
Of this morning,
This trail,
And me,
Not the same person who ran it a few months prior.
Many spiritual practices are aimed at getting to the essential truth of the ever new unfolding of each moment.
It's often our attachments to past experience that get in the way of seeing rightly.
We see through a wall of conditioning.
We put places and people into boxes based on our previous experiences and relationships.
Have you ever had an amazing experience and then tried to recreate it,
Maybe doing the same thing or something similar but found it wasn't the same?
That's because the first time it was new.
The second time you were comparing it to the past,
Not fully savoring the newness of now.
On my run,
Once I started repeating,
Now is only new,
There was a shift in energy,
An aliveness and presence emerged that helped me access a greater depth with the experience.
Suddenly it transformed into its own day,
Not clouded by the past.
I encourage you to use this mantra throughout your day.
Notice how it opens you up to a field that was not there before.
Now is only new.
And so let's do a practice to explore this a bit deeper.
Close your eyes,
Relax your shoulders,
Start to come into your body and bring awareness to the breath moving in and out of your body.
This is maybe a practice you often do as you meditate and slow down.
But for today,
I really want you to notice each breath completely new.
Although you have breathed millions,
Maybe billions of times before,
You have never taken this breath with this air ever before.
You are new in each moment,
The oxygen is new.
And so feel each breath moving in and out as if you're experiencing it for the first time.
And just notice if that makes this grounding or this breath a little different,
A little bit more awake.
And you might even try on repeating our mantra for today in your mind or in your body.
Now is only new.
Now is only new.
And then taking a cleansing breath together and letting it go.
I'd like you to identify maybe another area where you're holding on to the past in some way.
So imagine a past positive experience,
Maybe time with family or a trip you went on,
Maybe a success or achievement you had.
And let yourself feel the joy and the connection of that experience,
The newness,
The beauty,
Whatever it was for you to have that moment.
Showing gratitude for it if it's there.
This may seem strange,
But after you appreciate it,
I want to invite you to let it go.
Not that you're going to forget it,
But as a way to not bring it into this moment or your next trip,
Your next experience.
So that your next experience can be just as precious in its own way.
And so take a few moments to really just honor,
Appreciate,
And then let it be.
Let it be in the past.
Don't hold on to it.
You might do that with just a big cleansing breath in and letting it go on your breath out.
And we may have to do this with many different moments and experiences.
Just bringing more conscious attention to how we're bringing the past into the present and realizing that that's just getting in the way of an even greater experience of now.
And so one last little practice here for you to take into your day.
Imagine something that you're going to do today.
Something that you've done many times before.
Maybe it's a run like me,
A commute in your car,
Or unloading the dishwasher.
Imagine yourself doing this.
And as you're doing it in your mind,
Repeating,
Now is only new.
Now is only new.
Now is only new.
And see yourself doing that thing as if it was the first time.
And taking a last breath together.
Letting it go.
And I really encourage you to take this into your day,
To do that thing as if it was the first time.
To use this mantra,
Now is only new,
To help you access the beauty,
The vitality of each moment we are blessed to have.
Thank you so much for listening and for practicing with me.
I'd love to hear how this mantra landed.
You're welcome to leave a comment.
And if you liked using a mantra in this way and listening to the music and doing the shorter practice,
Then I want to invite you.
This is a sample of what the meditations and the practices are like in my course,
Unshakable Peace,
22 Mantras of Hope.
In it,
You'll learn many mantras similar to this to help you live with a greater aliveness,
A greater persistence and resilience,
And experience all the beauty that life has for you.
So if you're needing a boost of upliftment,
I really encourage you to check out that course and say hi in the classroom if you join.
Until next time,
I'm sending you so much love.
Take care.
