Page 17 - Seniors Today - June 2021 Issue

someone or something. The other is The same goes for waiting to be happy.
waiting for something or someone to bring
happiness to you.
Both result in frustration.
According to Eckhart Tolle, waiting is a
state of mind more than it is a situation that
we find ourselves in, meaning that you can
control it.
The next time you find yourself waiting
for something, try not to think of yourself
as waiting at all.
Consider a person who is waiting for a bus
to arrive.
Now, if you were to ask this person what
they were doing, most people would tell
you that they were waiting for the bus.
But what if, instead, their response was
that they were enjoying the fresh air and
watching the events around them unfold?
When the bus arrives, they’ll get on it and
carry about their lives. Until then, though,
they are enjoying the present moment they
find themselves in rather than spending
the entire time staring at their watch.
Imagine what a more pleasant time this
person is having than they would have if
they had a waiting mindset.
A waiting mindset breeds impatience, and
impatience breeds frustration.
The reality is, though, that waiting is a
choice, and rather than choosing to wait
you can choose to enjoy life’s moments as
they come instead.
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #24 | JUNE 2021
We think – After my daughter gets married
to a good boy then I will be happy. After
I get through my surgery then I will be
content. Let my husband / wife get better,
then I will find happiness, when I get a
better rate of interest, then I’m going to be
over the moon.
We defer our happy moments by giving
the power away to a situation or person.
Little realising we can be happy right now,
right here – for no reason at all and without
waiting for conditions to be fulfilled.
I hear you say it sounds good in theory.
But once you start owning your own joy,
you will thank yourself.
Spiritual guru and author of several
books including bestsellers, The Power
of Now and A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle,
calls it stillness. “It’s an aware presence,
he says, nothing to do with past or future.
We can also call it waking up. That’s why
many spiritual traditions use the term
awakening. You wake up out of this dream
of constant thinking. You become present.”
He goes on to say, “The only moment we
ever really have is this one. Happiness isn’t
in the future or the past but in mindful
awareness of the present.”
The art of being present can be learned
if you practice diligently and commit to
moments of awareness daily. Wherever
you are, be fully there. For it is in “being
here now” that the magic of your life truly
unfolds.
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