Be Present
The love in the air on Valentine’s Day and the warmth in the surroundings, irrespective of the chilliness of the winter outside, forces me to share the beautiful lesson I learnt by experiencing a perfect synergy of my love aka yoga and the world’s symbol of love aka chocolate.
The class was spelled out as “Yoga and Chocolate”; the hypothesis being put to test was whether yoga helps you enhance your senses by being in the present. Thus, devoid of any guilt since was doing this under the instructions of a fitness guru; we devoured a special bitter-sweet chocolate and practiced some yoga. The process was repeated to discover if the chocolate tasted better by performing the asanas that help us tune into the present. To everyone’s chocolaty delight it actually did!
The beauty of being in the present cannot be emphasized enough. If excellence had a punch line it would read as “Be Present”. The act of tuning in to even the simplest of activities metamorphoses the mundane caterpillar into a colorful butterfly – so on paying total attention to the activity our food tastes better, conversations are richer, work-outs are wholesome, learnings are permanent and life is fulfilling.
This is what the learned ones must have meant when they defined meditation - zoning into the act and fading out the rest. I often experienced the exact same sensations in the process of producing my best results at work that I felt in a state of deep meditation – musicians feel it while making music, painters do while producing art, lovers do while making love, writers do while materializing their thoughts – all of us taste that deep seat of meditation when we are one hundred percent in the present.
Tuning in also helps to listen to the cues and sounds a half-hearted ear would have missed – it enhances what Howard Gardner, the father of Multiple Intelligence, would call as interpersonal intelligence that is the capacity to understand others and intrapersonal intelligence that is the capacity to understand ourselves. Being in the present helps all our relationships become more meaningful, irrespective of the initial depth and most importantly make us self-aware so that we can understand what our body and intellect are signaling and act accordingly.
No better way to pause this chain of thoughts by a present of love on this day of love – Kalidasa summing the high of being in the present:
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
The love in the air on Valentine’s Day and the warmth in the surroundings, irrespective of the chilliness of the winter outside, forces me to share the beautiful lesson I learnt by experiencing a perfect synergy of my love aka yoga and the world’s symbol of love aka chocolate.
The class was spelled out as “Yoga and Chocolate”; the hypothesis being put to test was whether yoga helps you enhance your senses by being in the present. Thus, devoid of any guilt since was doing this under the instructions of a fitness guru; we devoured a special bitter-sweet chocolate and practiced some yoga. The process was repeated to discover if the chocolate tasted better by performing the asanas that help us tune into the present. To everyone’s chocolaty delight it actually did!
The beauty of being in the present cannot be emphasized enough. If excellence had a punch line it would read as “Be Present”. The act of tuning in to even the simplest of activities metamorphoses the mundane caterpillar into a colorful butterfly – so on paying total attention to the activity our food tastes better, conversations are richer, work-outs are wholesome, learnings are permanent and life is fulfilling.
This is what the learned ones must have meant when they defined meditation - zoning into the act and fading out the rest. I often experienced the exact same sensations in the process of producing my best results at work that I felt in a state of deep meditation – musicians feel it while making music, painters do while producing art, lovers do while making love, writers do while materializing their thoughts – all of us taste that deep seat of meditation when we are one hundred percent in the present.
Tuning in also helps to listen to the cues and sounds a half-hearted ear would have missed – it enhances what Howard Gardner, the father of Multiple Intelligence, would call as interpersonal intelligence that is the capacity to understand others and intrapersonal intelligence that is the capacity to understand ourselves. Being in the present helps all our relationships become more meaningful, irrespective of the initial depth and most importantly make us self-aware so that we can understand what our body and intellect are signaling and act accordingly.
No better way to pause this chain of thoughts by a present of love on this day of love – Kalidasa summing the high of being in the present:
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
posted by Garima at 1:49 PM
2 Comments:
This is very true. its quite a thought and worthwhile thinking deeper. Remember The Matrix toward the end, when Neo is in the corridor suddenly coming to terms with his new power, curious and amused like a child at his new discovery, absently defending the blows delt at him by Agent Smith with one hand; watching the bullets shot at him - indulging 100% with the present so even the bullets stop moving!
Good for people to know.
Post a Comment
<< Home