Another three-minute therapy session called ‘Getting Back to Now’. As we age, the past we carry with us grows and grows. For some it becomes a weighty burden. It is ever so easy for people to get lost in the past. To dig at old wounds and ponder the errors of ones youth. It’s easy to become depressed. And it’s a hard habit to break. At the opposite end we have the future. Anxieties about where you’re going and how in the world you’re going to get there can freeze a person to total inaction. Worry about the future can cause depression in the same manner as dwelling upon the past. The only good thing about the future from an older person’s standpoint is that there is so much less left of it to worry about. Uh, yeah, maybe not so much but you get my drift. Anyway, finding inner peace and tranquility can be a daunting task. And somewhat exhausting. The various self-help methodologies contained in the ever-growing self-help aisle at the bookstore offer a wide variety of solutions. Many work, many don’t. Some work for a while and fade quickly. Some might help for a lifetime but those, I believe, are few. Most are way too long. A three-page self-help book might not be the most profitable thing to try and get published even if it were effective. Therefore, I am trying to take a simpler path. A less complicated system that doesn’t require 42 to steps to happiness. I think of it as ‘Getting Back to Now’. Getting my mind to focus on the simple pleasures of the moment and enjoying where I am without worrying about where I’m going and where I have been. That’s not to say I don’t have time to ponder future adventures or cherish sweet memories. It’s just that when I feel anxiety for what’s to come or become too melancholy over spilt milk from 30 years ago I immediately re-center my thoughts to the here and now. This philosophy requires commitment to today, to the moment. You must open your eyes and try to see everything around you as new and unique. Reach out and touch the awesomeness that surrounds you. Remember as a child the times spent doing nothing more that watching clouds roll by? Well, the clouds are still there. Take ten and go out and look. Feel the wind’s caress upon your face and hear the rustling leaves in the trees. Go out and feel the heat of the sun or the chill of the night and breath deep of this ‘now’ that is yours. Pet the dog, stroke the cat, feed your fish. Pick a book at random and make yourself read five pages. There’s always time to relish this ‘now’. Young children do this every moment of every day. Easy for them because they don’t have few burdens from the past and they could really care less about the future. Of course puberty kind of screws that up for everyone but that’s another conundrum entirely. I remember as I child having one of those blow-up clowns with sand in the bottom upon which you could take out your aggressions. You punch it in the nose and it bounces back up. Punch it backwards, kick it forwards and it always returned to the vertical. I use that image when my mind wanders to far afield to get my old brain back to center. I know it’s always kind of creepy when clowns are involved but for me it works. That and the memory of the noise that stupid red nose made when you landed a good punch are effective for me. Try and find a little mental trick that works for you. There you go. I just saved you a costly therapy session or $29.95 for one of those books. (If you really want one of those books wait three months and it will be in the bargain bin at the store. They come and go so fast). Here’s hoping tranquility hunts you down and drags you to the ground kicking and screaming until you eventually succumb to the inner peace you deserve.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 15:07:20 +0000
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