Wherever you are, be all there

Someone gave this little book to my mom for her birthday and I saw it on the couch and started flipping through it. I was lured in immediately. My mom was like, “My friend bought that at Anthropologie. I’m going to return it for something cute.” And I was thinking, what can you buy at Anthropologie for $15, a heart-shaped BUTTON? So I snuck it upstairs to my room and continued reading.

You know when you need something so desperately in your life but you don’t know what it is until it lands in your fingertips?

The book, if you didn’t check the link, is called How Now: 100 ways to celebrate the present moment. This is something I struggle with always, the inability to embrace this for this, to soak up the now. What’s going on later? I can’t wait for this weekend! In just a few months, I’ll be home free. In just a few years, I’ll be there. My disconnection from the present puts a seatbelt on those big, hearty laughs and those therapeutic tears. It makes it hard to feel life, to experience life.

Anyway, I’ve enjoyed reading the little hippie exercises that help you snap back into the moment.

For instance:

Celebration # 2 Inner Smile
Feeling joyful is not necessary for presence, but it’s one of the most powerful ways to induce it. Joy creates an almost instantaneous sense of expansion­an inner smile that’s like a warm bath. Some call this warm bath “flow” or “spirit.” No matter the name, experiencing it naturally connects us to ourselves and to everyone and everything around us.

The Practice:
Think about someone or something that you love. This could be a child, a place in nature, or a favorite memory. Whatever you choose, make sure that just reflecting upon it creates an automatic inner smile. Then surrender to that inner smile. Let it light you up. Feel it spread through your body and even beyond it, uniting you joyously with your surroundings.

Try it!