As the days chase days and months chase months, we are in a “moment” where we come together again, so much so that if I were to ask you to talk about this “moment” now, what would be the first thing that comes to your mind? The very NOW that we are in, where neither the past nor the future has any place, where you are reading these lines!
The 1989 movie “Dead Poets Society” directed by Peter Weir and starring Robin Williams as a teacher coincided with my teenage years. The movie was a big hit in those years and won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) introduced his underpressure students to a completely different world of literature and poetry. He taught them freedom, to understand life anew, and to look at the world from different perspectives.
In the movie, Robin Williams (Mr. Keating) says;
– Grasp the day you live, children. Make your life extraordinary!
The philosophy of Carpe Diem, known as living in the moment, came to the agenda with this movie in those years. This philosophical movement, which dates back to before Christ, is mentioned in the lines of the Odes written by the Roman poet Horatius:
“Carpe diem, quam minimun credula postero”
“Be wise, filter the wine drop by drop
Don’t rely on false hopes in this short life
Even as we speak
Jealous time will have passed
Live your day to the fullest
Trust your tomorrow as little as possible!”
Carpe Diem means living in the moment, seizing the day, living to the fullest, and savoring it. The Carpe Diem philosophy can also be defined as the philosophy of those who are always aware of the reality of death, know the value of time, and take care to live in the moment.
” Staying in the moment”…
It is a fashionable expression whose meaning becomes clearer with age.
It means living in the present moment, not regretting the past, not worrying about the future, focusing only on the present, whatever it is we are experiencing, not judging, not dwelling on the past, and not worrying about the future.
It is often easier to express than to practice. It’s not easy to stay in the moment amidst the daily hustle and bustle and all the excuses we all have, but trying and succeeding can have a tremendous impact because life is really about moments. How you want to fill those moments is up to you. When your priorities and indispensables are integrated with the things that make you who you are, you will feel that living is not just breathing in and out, and you will be able to experience the dimension of awareness in your bones.
Stay in the moment.
Now I am giving you a few tips dear ArtTmodernmiami readers:
One of the things that prevent you from staying in the moment is the tense psoas muscle, also known as the “soul muscle”. What is the psoas muscle? Where is it? How to relax it? There are many resources on the internet on this subject. In short, the psoas muscle, which balances the core, that is all abdominal muscles, provides waist smoothness, feels moments of fear and stress, understands the language of the soul, and stretching it reduces chronic stress. When you stretch and relax your psoas muscle, also known as the deepest core of the body, you will see that you can stay in the moment much more easily. It is a completely different “moment” anyway. When you achieve it, even for a short time, you realize it immediately. It’s as if a button has been pushed inside you and you are suddenly in that mode.
One of the unique tactics to stay in the moment is to ask yourself the question “If not now, when?”
When you stay in the moment you are just a spectator and your mind is an observer of your thoughts.
These days, dear friends, I am in the days when I realize what a unique experience it is to stay “at the moment”. I realize that I have always wavered between the past and the future has seriously affected my happiness, peace of mind, and, whole life. We cannot change the past, so why worry about what happened in the past? We cannot know what will happen in the future because external factors other than us affect the formation of things. The butterfly effect…So nothing goes as you planned. And that leads to disappointment.
Imagine… here I am sharing these things with you. I am sharing my insights and observations and feel this pleasure down to my bones. I’m fired up, the words are just flowing out of my mind without a plan.
If I had these thoughts in my mind right after saying “Ohh how beautifully I am conveying my feelings”:
– I wonder if they will like my writing.
– I wish I had chosen a topic that was easier to explain.
– Where should I go for dinner with my boyfriend tomorrow?
– Some people can earn a lot more money without any effort on their part. Why can’t I?
– Oh, it’s the end of the month.
– Should I go back to city life?
… what would happen? Of course, I’d have ruined the moment. I’d have missed the moment. So, what can we do?
* When you find yourself or catch yourself in this chain of thoughts and similar thoughts, engage your awareness.
In those moments, stop and just take a deep breath.
* Meditate if you can. Focus on anything around you, a pencil, a flower, a cat, a cloud, it doesn’t matter. Experience it, one by one, in the smallest detail. And then maybe another object and another and another.
You’re in the moment!
* Or press the button on your psoas muscle. Stretch it.
That first thought is very important to stay in the first link of the chain. Whether we choose to follow the other links of the chain or to stay in the first link, that is, to stay in the moment, is entirely up to us. Following that first thought is an age-old habit of ours. Following this thought, we often want to protect ourselves by dwelling on possible possibilities.
Our thoughts will always appear. Our habitual belief system (our ego) will always suggest we “think about this”. We will always hear it as an inner voice. The fact that we follow that thought is an indication that we are not in the moment.
I want to warn you that our first attempts will not be so easy. But we have to stop trying. As I said, what we want to achieve is a habit. If we can get away from the chain of disturbing thoughts in this way, even for 2 minutes a day, this is a great improvement and actually the beginning of change.
Do you realize that we create the after “moment” ourselves in the present moment and if we are in the moment and are “worried” about the after moment, yes, we create those worries too? Because we are all very powerful creators!
Staying in the moment means feeling instead of thinking. The first step to staying in the moment: Is to realize!
Eckhart Tolle’s legendary book ” book is an in-depth guide on how to find inner peace and enlightenment for people who realize the importance of living in the present moment, but whose mind wanders between the past and the future and misses the present.
Now I would like to ask you this question:
Do you want to experience this and change for yourself? I am still trying; I am not giving up.
And how are you doing?
Kamil Cakir
* The Odes of Horace
* https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatius
* https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/horace
