Nowness

Last night the word NOWNESS popped into my head. I wasn’t even sure if it was a real word or not. I looked it up in the dictionary this morning and all though it has several meanings, the definition that I want to look at is ‘this present moment’
This seems to me like a good word to use and reminded me of a book I’ve seen in the book shops but never read by Eckhart Tolle called The Power of Now.

When I had that thought last night, I was meditating on what nowness meant to me. Is the present important? Is it any more important than the past or future? What is now since we are in constant motion through the universe? How long is now, a second, a minute an hour? What power is there in the now?

Think deeply about now or the present it is actually a difficult thing to grasp and understand. In Conversations With God, God, depending on your own point of view on the books, describes the ‘present’ as exactly that, a gift, something to cherish and be thankful for. It is literally, a present from God.

So why is nowness so important and how can it bring benefit to oneself?

Firstly, begin to grasp the importance of the value of time. Whether there be an afterlife or not, this particular body has an average life of about 70 – 80 years. How much can we accomplish within that time frame? Life is a wonderful gift, if you choose to perceive it that way! Some may believe that life is worth very little but choosing to think that way can only bring about a waste of time. The world is filled with wonders as well as the most horrid things known to man, but the variety is breathtaking.

Sitting here in this very moment I could be doing anything I choose to, there are limits of finances and other factors, but if I set my mind to it, there is almost nothing I cannot do! Those are just the constraints of the body, within my mind and my soul I could be creating or feeling anything I choose to that brings benefit to humankind

Within this world of variety are great precious moments that no one forgets. Precious moments don’t just have to come once in a life time. They can be at any time you choose.

Ask yourself, what am I am doing right at this moment and what could I potentially be doing? It doesn’t even have to be anything grand or profound, it could be as simple as; doing a better job at work, or, cleaning the car but enjoying the experience at the same time! Appreciating that you have the opportunity to clean your car and make it shiny, be proud of that moment, it may be common place for us but some individuals will never experience the pride one feels after doing a good job of washing the car.

Newness and nowness in daily routines

It is easy to forget to appreciate some of the things that one might do on a daily basis because that feeling of newness is no longer there. So what can you do to revive the feeling that this is something that you’re doing for the very first time? Remember that this opportunity is limited. It is something that you will not be able to do for very long so enjoy it while it lasts. Learn to appreciate the small things. That fact that you can walk, talk, smile, laugh, love, feel pain, drive, work, type (one for the bloggers), read, speak and the list just goes on and on. There are those who never get such opportunities and would die for them and those that do are never thankful that they have them.

Learn to live in the moment, do not dwell on the past too much and likewise do not create expectations of the future, live in the now and become a nowness type of person and enjoy every step.

Try an experiment on yourself; try to appreciate each moment and what you’re doing in each moment to see what effect it has on your day and feel free to post up any results of your personal experiment.