Welcome,
And I hope that each one of you will come to find peace within yourself.
Today I want to talk a little bit about dealing with time.
And this meditation is based on a live session I did recently.
You know what,
Time is the currency that we can't earn back.
And yet we often spend it like it's infinite.
Most people delay joy and postpone presents and defer their dreams,
Waiting for a better moment that may never come.
And I say it all the time at the beginning of each one of my live sessions.
Time is our most valuable commodity.
And it's the one thing that we spend without ever knowing what our balance is,
Without ever knowing how much time we have left.
And I've talked before about the Tim McGraw song,
Live Like You Were Dyin'.
Where he's talking about a man who finds out he has terminal cancer and he only has a short time to live.
And he talks about the things he did because knowing he was dying was liberating.
And he says in the song,
I went skydiving.
I went Rocky Mountain climbing.
I went 2.
7 seconds on a bowl named Fu Manchu.
And I loved deeper.
And I spoke sweeter.
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying.
And he said,
Someday I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying.
So in this moment,
I ask each one of you to stop.
For one moment.
And imagine.
Truly imagine that you've been told that you have just seven days to live.
Just seven.
In seven days,
It'll be over.
Think about it.
Think about how that would change the way you would value those seven days.
What would you do?
Who would you want to see?
Who would you want to talk to?
What would you want to eat?
Because when you're told that your time is down to only seven days or seven months,
It makes you look at everything differently.
When I was 30,
A team of doctors told me that I only had about five years to live.
And they suggested I get my affairs in order.
And the one benefit of being told that was that I lived my life differently.
I lived like I was dying.
I dedicated time to my daughters and we went camping and canoeing and we built forts and snow houses and we played in the fall leaves.
We did Girl Scouts together and we lived each moment.
And I noticed all the things around me that I might have otherwise missed.
So when you live like you're dying,
It isn't about urgency,
It's about clarity.
Living as if you were dying is really a way of bringing impermanence out of the abstract and into your body.
When people here live like you are dying,
They sometimes think about urgency,
Or bucket lists,
Or the pressure to squeeze every possible thing into each moment.
That's not how it is.
Impermanence strips away the unnecessary.
What actually matters becomes unmistakably clear.
Unmistakably.
And when you remember that things won't last,
You meet them with more gentleness.
Close your eyes now and let's get in touch with our breath.
And it doesn't matter if you're sitting,
Standing,
Lying down,
Or kicked back in your favorite recliner.
The only thing that truly matters when you meditate is that you're comfortable and alert.
So just relax in whatever position you're in.
You can close your eyes or you can leave them open.
It's always your meditation.
I'm just a guide,
A guide who's been doing it for a long time,
But still just a guide.
And I do what makes me happy and you have to do the same.
Because there is no right way to meditate.
So as we start to settle in,
Let's scan our body.
Relax your face.
You're way too tense.
Unfurl your brow and unclench your jaw.
Relax your neck.
Relax your shoulders.
These are common places of tension in today's world.
Because we're hunched over phones and tablets and laptops.
Relax your arms and your hands.
Look for any tension in your chest and belly.
And then relax your legs and your feet.
And as you begin to relax,
Let's focus even more on our breath.
Our breath is our anchor.
It's there for us in all moments from beginning to end.
Our breath is like a river as it flows in and flows out.
And if you have thoughts,
Those are a part of life.
Just let them go.
They're like clouds in the sky or leaves going downstream on a river.
Just let them go.
The same goes for any sound you might hear.
Right now,
In this moment,
There's nothing to accomplish.
There's nowhere else to be.
We're just breathing in and breathing out one breath at a time.
And then the next.
And then the next.
And that is the present moment.
One breath,
One inhale,
And one exhale.
So just allow your body to settle like a leaf floating upon calm water.
And as you rest here.
Bring your attention to the simple rhythm of breathing.
No need to change it.
Just noticing.
The breath arriving,
The breath departing.
Arriving,
Departing,
Like waves touching a shore.
And as the mind begins to quiet,
Imagine yourself standing beside a beautiful river.
Perhaps it's one you know.
Or perhaps it appears naturally from your imagination.
Does it matter?
Just notice the water.
It's clear.
It's flowing.
It's steady.
And it's ancient.
The river has been moving long before you arrived,
And it will continue long after you leave.
Just watch the current.
The water never rushes.
It never hesitates.
It simply flows.
The river is time.
Not the numbers on a clock.
Not the dates on a calendar,
But the living movement of life itself.
The unfolding of moments.
The gentle current carrying everything forward.
So just stand quietly on the riverbank and watch.
Notice how often the mind wants to step out of the present moment.
Perhaps it travels upstream.
Revisiting conversations.
Or regrets,
Or mistakes.
Or moments that should have gone differently.
The mind wanders towards waters that have already passed.
Trying to scoop them back into its hands.
Trying to change their course,
But the river keeps moving.
The water that flowed by yesterday is gone.
And no amount of effort can bring it back.
Notice how that feels.
There may be sadness.
Or tempterness.
Or maybe even relief.
And notice how another movement of the mind.
It travels downstream towards tomorrow.
Towards next week.
Towards uncertainty.
Towards plants.
And worries and questions.
What if.
.
.
What comes next?
Will there be enough time?
Or will everything work out?
The mind gazes towards waters that have not yet arrived.
Trying to know them,
Trying to control them.
Yet those waters remain beyond reach.
Still unseen around the bend.
To for a moment simply observe.
The past flows upstream.
The future waits downstream.
And here you are.
Standing at the river's edge,
In the only place where life is actually happening.
Right here,
This breath.
This sound,
This sensation,
This moment.
The river is not asking you to solve time.
The river is inviting you to enter it.
Now imagine stepping into the water,
Perhaps with bare feet,
And feel the coolness,
The movement around your ankles,
And notice something beautiful.
The river never touches you with the same water twice.
Each moment arrives completely fresh,
Completely new.
This breath has never existed before and it will never exist again.
Not one moment of your life has ever been repeated.
Life is continuously arriving.
Fresh.
Alive and unfolding and see if you can feel the sacredness of that.
Just this breath.
Just this heartbeat.
Just this moment.
Many of us live as though time is chasing us,
As though we are running behind,
Trying desperately to catch up.
But perhaps the river offers another possibility.
Imagine what would happen if instead of fighting the current,
You allowed yourself to float.
Not giving up.
Not becoming passive.
Simply trusting.
Allowing life to carry you one moment at a time.
And feel your body supported by the water.
The river does not ask the leaf to control its destination.
The river simply carries it.
The leaf's only task is to rest upon the flow.
Can you feel that invitation?
The possibility of relaxing your grip?
Of trusting this moment enough to inhabit it fully Perhaps there are places in your life where you are resisting the river.
Trying to force something.
Hurrying something.
Holding on to something that is already passing.
Or demanding that the future reveal itself before it arrives.
Gently bring one of those places to mind.
No judgment.
Judgment at all,
Just awareness.
And imagine placing it into the river.
And watch the current hold it.
Harriet.
Move with it.
You do not have to carry everything yourself.
Life has been moving rivers long before you arrived.
And there is wisdom in the current.
Now bring your attention again to your breath.
Notice how breathing itself is a river.
An inhale arrives.
It stays for just a moment.
And then it leaves.
And an exhale arrives.
And it too changes and disappears,
And every breath teaches the same lesson.
Arrival.
Presence.
And departure.
Nothing lasts.
And because nothing lasts,
Everything is precious.
The beauty of a sunset comes from its passing.
The sweetness of a laugh comes from its brevity.
Even the people we love become more precious because we know our moments together are limited.
Impermanence is not what diminishes life.
Is what gives life value.
The river knows this.
The river never clinks.
The river never says.
This band should last forever.
It never demands.
This water must remain exactly as it is.
It simply moves.
Flowing.
Changing.
Becoming.
Again and again.
And perhaps wisdom is not learning how to stop the river.
Perhaps wisdom is learning how to dance with its movement.
To participate fully.
To love deeply and to release gently.
And take a few minutes now just to simply rest.
And imagine yourself floating effortlessly downstream.
There's nothing to fix,
Nothing to solve,
Nothing to hurry.
Just floating in the river of this moment,
Supported,
Held,
Carried,
Just breathing in and breathing out one breath at a time.
Now as we begin to close,
Remember this,
The past is water that has already flowed by.
And the future is water that has not yet arrived.
But this moment,
This breath,
This heartbeat is the place where life touches you again and again and again.
And again.
The river is always here,
Waiting for your attention,
Waiting for your presence.
Waiting for your willingness to step into the living stream of now.
Take in a deeper breath and feel your body.
And notice the surface beneath you.
And now notice the room around you and carry with you the wisdom of the river,
Not to rush,
Not to resist,
But to flow.
One breath,
One moment,
One beautiful bend in the river at a time.
And when you're ready,
Gently open your eyes and return fully present to this moment.
And I hope this has been a beneficial and calming session for each and every one of you.
Life is precious and it happens one breath at a time.
Forever is now.
And the sooner we come to terms with that,
The more full we can live our lives.
Until next time.
