Q&A: Present Moment Awareness

You.

Hello and welcome to today's coaching Q and A call for mind tracks and learning strategies. I am Wendy Greer and I'm here to field questions as well as do a mini discussion. So I need to start by plugging a hole I left last time. I was remiss. I spoke about the power of journaling and tracking your journey and how important that can be in your progress toward your goals. And I neglected to mention which paraliminals I recommend. Turns out, I mean, I'm sorry I left the hole. However, this is sort of a standalone talk by itself. Anytime that you need to establish a new pattern, a new skill, a new quality, or you're looking to bring something new into your life, self discipline is a great place to start, you know, because that helps you to really integrate on a regular basis whatever it is you're choosing to instill. And along with that in tandem would be New Action Generator, because New Action really enables you to embrace the change you're seeking, not to see it as a threat, but to sort of step into the flow of that change. The third one that often plays in is Break the Habit. The reason this one is so intrinsic for some people is a lot of us have plates that are so darn full there is no way we can fit anything else on it. So, so we have to decide what we're doing habitually, what we're doing on a regular basis. That's taking time that we might be able to either do, delegate or dump. And so Break the Habit is a great adjunct to the other two because it enables you to take a look at where you're putting your time, what you might be able to shift off your plate so that you can create room for the self discipline to instill the new habit. So that's my take on that. I apologize I didn't bring it up last week. I get rolling and anyway, I apologize. So today I wanted to talk about present moment awareness.

Very early on, somebody gave me a book to read. Some of you that have been around a while will remember, will recollect Ram Dass. The book is Remember Be Here now. Ram Dass, aka Richard Alpert, was a PhD psychologist associated with Berkeley and also had, I think he had tenure at Yale and Harvard. Very clearly, very astute gentleman, was part of the movement that started using psychedelics to expand consciousness. It's a very strange little book. I think some of it was, was done under the influence, but it had a huge impact on me because it made me really recognize that people with busy minds and Most of us qualify. We aren't living, we aren't being here now. We're out in the future, we're in the past. And so it was a really good thing for me to integrate at. Pretty early on, you know, I had already taken up meditation, but I really started consciously trying to be in the present moment. I found it particularly easy out in nature, you know, when I was in nature and in natural surroundings with music, something that really sort of just, it just, it fills you, it fills you up. And so it's like you're so focused on that, that, that you are in the present moment. Now that being said, I came across a really great meditation teacher who had an incredible ability to, to distill esoteric concepts and make them real world friendly. And of course, I'm where the rubber hits the road here. So I like things I can take out into the world. And the basic premise of what she taught was that there's a model of existence. And if you understand how the model of existence works, you can align yourself with that. And life flows much more easily. You're more tuned in, you're more connected to the quantum field or the emptiness or, you know, the, you're, you're more in an expansive state. State to embrace what the world has to offer. And one of the keystones of that was conscious awareness in the present moment. And so to be consciously aware in the present moment and, and doing things from a very clear and lucid place. Well, when I do a course, I always dive right in and I, I go for the gusto. And I was just curious how much I was in the present moment. And we had these little boxes in the office called motivators. Some of you may remember them. They, they have batteries and you can clip them onto your waistband and you set them to vi. Vibrate as often as you choose. So I started setting it every day. I'd come in, clip it on, and I'd set it to go every half hour. I was shocked how often I was not here now. I was thinking about the call I just had. I was projecting what I might need to deal with later in the day. I was trying to decide if I had enough vegetables in the fridge for dinner or whether I should have gotten something out of the freezer. I was all over the board and, and I sort of thought that I was sort of living in the present moment. So it was a real eye opener for me. And it really made me understand.

How easy it is to get distracted. And you're taking yourself out of power Mode, because the present moment is where the juice is. I wanted to share a couple of examples just to really clarify the impact this can have. They're at both ends of the spectrum, one totally unaware and one very aware of. Last spring, I was driving in Eden Prairie, really nice community. And I was driving down a road that had mature trees. I love trees. And they were almost meeting over the road, and I saw this awesome little vignette, you know, on the left side up ahead of me. It was a mom pushing a stroller with a toddler in it and a golden retriever walking alongside. And joie de vivre was just oozing from this little vignette for me. The dog had his. His tail was a plume, and it was waving above his back. And instead of walking, he was sort of prancing like a lipizon or stallion or something. And he had this look on his face, like, almost like he was smiling or laughing. You know, when a dog shows his teeth and he just likes. He looks like he's enjoying life. And while I was watching, the toddler really excited about something and started pointing, and he's gesticulating and, you know, pointing at something. And I was sort of surprised. The mom didn't seem like she was responding. So as I pulled up, I sort of looked over, and she had her cell phone out on the handle of the stroller, and she was texting. And the kid is getting more and more agitated as he's trying to show her she's still texting. And as I went down the road and had to turn left, I looked in my rearview mirror and she was still texting. I mean, that is an example of somebody who was absolutely not in the present moment. So, you know, she. She wasn't aware of what was going on. She wasn't part of this joyous occasion, and she just was zoned out. Well, on the flip side, I have mentioned before that I have a couple of grandsons. And when William was three years old, his. He had a younger brother who had been born probably six months earlier, and he being a little fractious, so we decided to go for a walk. And we had had a lot of road construction in the area, and when we got down to the. The. The street that led to the local park, which is where we were headed, the playground. We got there and the. All the tractors, all the road workers were gone. And the road just stretched out totally black both directions. And. And William turned around and he goes, oh, look how. Look how clean it is. Look how clean. And then all of a sudden he bent down to the ground and, and he looks at me, goes, feel how smooth it is, Grandma Wendy. Feel it. And I got down next to him and he was absolutely right. That, that gloppy stuff they put between the, the, the stones they lay, it had been spread really smoothly and it was like touching velvet. And it wasn't sticky, it was totally smooth. And the texture was just like I said, a soft silk or a velvet. And I'm sitting there kneeling on, on the asphalt road, touching this velvet surface with my grandson next to me. And it was like, this may sound silly, but it was so profound. I was so totally in the moment. And the weird thing about it is I hadn't had a three year old with me that was noticing, I would not have seen what I, it was right beneath my feet and it again made me recognize if I'm missing that, what else am I missing, you know, what else am I not consciously aware of? So the reason I bring this up as such a crucial factor is the point of power is in the present moment. Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, says this is where your appointment with life is. It's not in the past, it's not in the future. You can plan for the future and hopefully circumvent some of the issues that might pop up. But as we've all seen over the last, last few years, you never know what life is going to throw at you. You can take the, the learning from the past, you can take the, the wisdom from the past and bring it into the present. But your appointment with life is here now. You're as, as Thich Nhat Hanh says, your true home is not in the past, it's not in the future. It's here now in the present moment. And that's where the power is. So you, when you recognize that and you step into that moment and full, in full consciousness, then you, you're taking control and you're becoming proactive. The other thing that is very important about being in the present moment is when you are there, when you're aware of what's going on, you're tracking, you're tracking, you're seeing correlations, you're seeing what, what is evolving before you. Success and failures leave footprints. And so you, you, if you're tracking and you're consciously aware in the present moment, you're seeing what's happening. So to go back to the mom with a stroller.

If she continues to.

I hope that that texting thing was a one off, but if she continues to do that and that toddler continues to try to share things with her and she isn't there, he's either going to shut down and not share or he's going to share with somebody else. And if that continues to happen, you can see how that would evolve, you know, and then later on, she can't understand why her son doesn't come to her with special needs or special problems or to share special successes, because she wasn't tracking, she wasn't seeing what was going on. And so it's, it's so incredibly important in your journey. And it doesn't matter whether you're using paraliminals or whether you're using any programmer or you had any new.

Thing that you're trying to engender in your life. If you're not consciously aware in the present moment, you're not stepping into your full power. So I wanted to talk about parallel that really, really support this. But I also want to just briefly allude to how Paul sets up the paraliminals. He has an introduction which generally is telling you, you know, where it might go and what you might do. And then he has a drop in. And generally it's, look at a point on the ceiling, See the point, close your eyes, look at that point on this. Really focus on that point in the ceiling. Sometimes it's, pay attention to your breath, you know, feel the air coming into your nostrils, feel it going out. Notice the difference in the temperature, the cooler as it goes in and the warmer as it goes out. What he's doing there is bringing you into the present moment. He's dropping you into this moment here, now. And that's where the power is. So the parallel that I specifically like for this are conscious time. Conscious time, most people assume, is for using your time more efficiently, getting through your to do list, you know, being more productive. Well, the undercurrent, though is, is consciousness, lucidity, clarity on how you're using your time. And so conscious time is a really good one to get a handle on how you feel about time, how you're using it, and whether you are being aware in the present moment or whether you are constantly, you know, negotiating with past, present, future, and not where the gusto is in the present moment. The other two that I really like for this are joy and euphoria. When you are in joy or euphoria, you are in the present moment. You're not in the past, you're not in the future. You're. You are here now. And so that's why I would choose those two. The other one I like because it gives you a sense of what it's like to be.

In the present moment and in the flow is peak performance. The reason I like this One is Tom McCarthy is just really good at helping people to access their potential when they need to. And so he gives you a really, really strong sense of what it's like to be at peak here now and really emoting and radiating what you do. Well, you know, as I think I've mentioned him before, he coaches Fortune 500 people, but he also has coached some Olympic athletes, and they get one crack at the. A lot of them get one crack, one performance, one event, and that's it. So they really need to be in the zone. And to do that, they need to be in the present moment. They need to be totally here now at maximum potential. And so that, I think, gives you a sense of what it is like to be in the present moment. So that is just a few thoughts on that. I just can't emphasize enough the difference I see in people that. That are relinquishing past assumptions. You know, that, that whole thing with the stroller, you know, that that child. Some of the, Some of the. Some of the really touching calls for me are people that internalize something like, if that child goes down the road of.

What I have to say doesn't matter that that life isn't a miracle and that isn't special. I just thought it was special, but it really isn't special because nobody cares or there's something wrong with me that I thought that was special and that nobody listened to me. So it's so important that we really tune in and try to be there for each other and for ourselves in the present moment. So. All right. We had a few questions. A couple of them, I think are incomplete. I'm not sure. Lisa. Oh, Lisa. I wanted to address yours. Lisa is having trouble. Her MindTrax app is not working. Your best bet for that, we have specialists who are so good at. This is customer service, mindtrax M I N D T R x dot com. That's what they do. And they will be happy to help you to sort out whatever is going on. That's not my area of expertise. And, you know, they can get. They may need specifics on your particular situation to. To know exactly what's going on so they can help you with that. So the two that may be incomplete. One is, what is my first step? Well, if you're just starting to use Paralympicals, I think One of my biggest pieces of advice is to get clear on what you want. A lot of people are very focused on what they don't want, what they wish they'd done differently, on what, what isn't working in their lives. I think the first crucial step is to be clear on what you want more of. So I don't know where that was coming from. And there may have been more that was meant to be entered after it. But that would be my, my, my single first step would be, what do you want more of? You know, why is it a priority? Get tuned into what it would feel like to have it so you can sort of build it up and emotionally connect with it. And that would be the first thing I would go for. This one, I'm sure is incomplete. What is a good way to. And that's it. So I'm afraid I can't help on that one. Don't have my crystal ball with me today, but if you want to send it back in course, clearly we'll get to it. This one is interesting. My name is Pauline and I would love to learn how to increase my energy.

That one could have so many answers depending on what's really going on there. I'm assuming there's nothing biochemical, but.

You might want to think about perfect health.

If there is a health issue for bringing balance back into your life. Five Elements Healing is really good for balancing your life. If it's, if it's something that pops up in the afternoon, then maybe 10 minute supercharger. Because 10 minute supercharger is like a power nap. So if you're sort of wiped out and you're just feeling like you need a pick me up, 10 minute supercharger might be good. Youthful vitality. You know, youthful vitality is about tuning into the energy of youth and, you know, being, being in that space where the little boy was, where life is just my oyster and there are pearls all over the place. Just look, just look. You can see them. So those would be the ones that I would think first, you know, if, if, if it's energy around a particular area, you might want to take a look at whether it's something that's misaligned, where it's not congruent with what you value. So, you know, do a little exploring and see, you know, why you're lacking energy. And, and then as I said, the generalities would be the ones I've mentioned. So question about parallel, excuse me, parallel accelerator. When I'm working, I can listen to two sessions, one during each break. I'm getting very good at blacking out and waking up at the end. Yeah, a lot of people do, they think they're asleep, but they come right back when Paul counts them out. Is it best for incubation purposes to do one day at a time? Not necessarily. And if you're having good results, sometimes doing two a day can actually increase the momentum. One of the curious things with the parallel accelerator is I've had very few people that get through the entire cycle. The reason is they'll call because they're saying, oh, I feel like I've stopped, I'm on a plateau. And I ask, where are you trying to go? And then I ask them where they're at and they're already there. So it's like they, they, they achieve that goal, but they, they have this, you know, I've got this regimen, I've got to do it and I got to finish it. Well, they're actually already there. So as with. And I hate these amorphous answers, but everybody's different. And so if you can do two a day, you feel like your momentum is increasing, you're making headway, I would go for it. Because, you know, that extra spark may be what you need to, to, to. You're, you're in the zone, you're, you're on track and you're keeping the momentum going. So, so that is all the questions I had for today. As always, I want to leave you with something inspiring. And I thought this was a neat comment on the topic we talked about today, which is present moment awareness. The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly. And that's the Buddha. So it says. It's still. I don't, I don't know why it would surprise me, but, you know, some of those sages were, and the prophets and the, the. Oh, it's just, it's just wonderful that they're still so pertinent. And that is summed up and distilled even further by Jerry Jampolsky. And love is letting go of fear. One of the comments he makes in there is to look directly at this instant is to be at peace. So look directly at this instant. To be here now, to be consciously aware is to be at peace with that thought. I'm going to leave you with, wishing you that peace and also sending you lots and lots of love. You take care and say Goodbye until next time.