Live In This Moment

I recently went on vacation to visit my sister and her family on the beach in New York. I will be honest – I have a LOVE/HATE relationship with vacations. I am not what you call a “Lay on the Beach For Hours” type of person. I am a “Thinker/List-Maker/Doer” type of person. I rarely sit down. Ever. (BTW – My husband roared in laughter when he read this).

So here is where the LOVE/HATE relationship comes into play when I go on vacation….I don’t “relax” like other people. I ALWAYS think I need to be doing something PRODUCTIVE. I feel like life is so short that I need to constantly be doing something or I might miss something.

This is where I am WRONG.

Let me explain.

Here is the perfect example, I was walking on the beach with my 4 and 7 year old last week. It was 8:00am and there was a the soft glow of light on the golden beach. Waves gently crashed on my left and a wispy breeze brushed my face with the Altantic Ocean air. Picture Perfect. While this scene would envoke relaxing thoughts in most people’s brains – mine was in the complete OPPOSITE state. 

Here is a sample of my “mental theater” on the beach:
“Don’t forgot to ship books to xyz editors on friday. what if the book doesn’t arrive on friday? is the press release ready to go? what time am I suppose to get together with that awesome social media guru? maybe I should confirm that appt today? what should I blog about when I get back? blah, blah, blah…..”

To make it worst – I am PHYSICALLY showing signs of stress. My fists are clenched at my side, my shoulders are tight and raised, my teeth are grinding as I am stomping my feet along the sand. I must have looked like Frankenstein in a women’s swimsuit!

What was I doing?  I finally shake myself and say my mantra, “LIVE IN THIS MOMENT”. I then consciencely stop myself from “stressing to the max” on this beautiful beach and look over at my 4 year old daughter. She is skipping along the beach and squealing in delight as the cold waves touch her toes. She is nowhere but HERE. Her Soul, her Thoughts, her Body are “IN THIS MOMENT”.

And I was missing it.

WHY do we do this? WHY do we MISS the greatest moments of our life? Our minds move so fast. Sometimes too fast. We need to slow things down and “LIVE IN THIS MOMENT”.

So I did.

I said, “The heck with the future for right now. I want to LIVE IN THIS MOMENT”.

So I chased waves with Alex for the morning.

I hope this helped you and thank you for reading this. I hope you find some waves to chase today.