Hello and welcome.
Please close your eyes if possible and take a long centering breath in through the nose.
And now breathe out.
Okay.
Now let's do that again,
But this time notice the sensations.
So breathe in and feel the air around your nostrils entering your nose and traveling down into your lungs.
Hold for a moment and then breathe out,
Feeling the warmth of the air after your body heated it.
Take two more slow,
Deep breaths in and out like this,
Focusing each time on new details about your body or surroundings.
What sounds do you hear?
What sense are in the air?
Very good.
Now continue your deeper and more intentional breathing as I speak.
This moment is so special.
Every small thing that happens in this moment,
No matter how trivial,
Sends a ripple into the future.
It's impossible to think about the future without first acknowledging the present.
Our future goals and ambitions remain an illusion until one day in the present,
We will find ourselves accomplishing the things that we dreamt up.
We often think of the future as something out there,
Further down our timeline that we make our way to.
But I want you to imagine for a moment something else.
Imagine that time is a red ribbon suspended in the air at waist height parallel to the ground.
Keeping your eyes closed,
I want you to imagine looking forward to the end of the ribbon that symbolizes the future.
Now rather than walking towards that end of the ribbon,
Imagine that you gently grab hold of the ribbon and carefully pull it towards you.
Your feet remain grounded in the present and it surrounds you with a peaceful aura of light.
You can look back and see the ribbon doesn't fall behind you.
It's almost as if it's on an invisible conveyor belt.
As you look forward,
You see your dreams,
Goals,
And ambitions coming towards you in the present moment.
Now imagine that you feel impatient and that you try to walk towards your goals as you pull the ribbon,
But you find that as you step forward out of the location that represents the present moment,
Your light grows dimmer and your joy begins to fade.
It also seems as though the goals that you have set aren't actually getting any closer.
When you decide to take a step back and reground yourself in the present,
You beam with radiance and joy again.
Then,
One by one,
Your future goals come to join you where you stand.
Having ambition does not need to detract from our present gratitude because it's our present gratitude and peaceful grounding that lubricates the ease of our future goals and draws them to us.
In this way,
Future and present are one and the same.
Stopping to breathe,
To look around,
To feel purely grateful and mindful will not be a pause or a setback.
Our time appreciating the present will never stop our progress,
But it can help us to accelerate our goals.
It doesn't mean that we're blind to our goals or the future.
It just means that we're comfortable and at peace in the present as we look ahead.
Next time you start to worry that you are unhappy because your mind is too caught up in the future,
Take a deep,
Calming breath and envision the aura of light and peace surrounding you again.
Remember that you're in the present and that the future you have created for yourself is coming to you.
Like everything else in your life,
You are so present that you won't miss the joy when it arrives,
Realizing it's arriving in every moment of every day.
I hope this can help you in your daily life to feel more calm as you crush those dreams.
See you next time.
