"Life is now. There was never a time when your life was not now, nor will there ever be."
-Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (page 41)
Well in all my mental training, all the techniques and philosophies I have studied, all the the greatest minds of education and psychology, all the gurus in self-help and healing all have a common factor: relaxation. You need to relax! But how do we relax in a world that is fast pace moving, hustle and bustle, and running around like a chicken without a head? With the pressures of the world on our shoulders? Money, education, family, parents, coaches, etc.
Besides all these pressure the world throws on our shoulders, there is also the pressures we put on ourselves. This leads to the result of becoming overwhelmed, in which you end up doing NOTHING, or over-thinking which keeps you moving but you end up staying in the same place, feeling stuck most of the time. Then when results don't show, we develop an illness worse than any other disease: WORRY. Worry is a disease that can lead to an even worse illness: Disappointment, or discouragement.
By over-thinking, worrying, and discouraging, we are often worried about past events and what lies for us in the future. By doing so, we end up not truly living our lives in the here and now. Because that' all there is: the NOW. We have to use the power of our minds properly. In his book The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle states "The mind is a superb instrument is used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately, it is not so much you are using your mind wrongly --you usually don't use it at all. It uses you."
This is why we torture ourselves in stead of being the the present moment, the moment that truly counts. I went to a Qigong seminar yesterday with Frankie and Lisa again. The Qi master had us to these moving meditations and the one that stood out the most for me was how we were to draw in to us our experiences from the past, redirect it away from us, then pull in what we want to keep close to our hearts, then push out the "garbage" we don't need away from us. It was very enlightening. He reminded us that there is not past or future, but the NOW that we live in. The worrying of "how" things will be done will only block the gifts and blessings that are supposed to come our way. I have taught this so much in my lifetime to others. I always said never worry about the how, just know that you WILL.
I have a challenge for one of my Black Belts who is testing for her 2nd Degree Black Belt in the fall. Every Black Belt test has a personal quest for each candidate. Because every person is different, every quest is different, which makes every test different. For her, her quest is to SEIZE THE MOMENT. Or other words most commonly referred to in Latin: CARPE DIEM. Many universities have carpe diem somewhere in their emblem because they want students to fully embrace the college experience of their lives, etc.
For this young Black Belt, it will be life changing for her to fully embrace the NOW. I first learned this when I was 18 turning 19. I was in Professor Lisa Sargese's class in college and first day of class she showed a video clip (which is at the end of this blog post). And after seeing the clip and understanding CARPE DIEM, SEIZE THE DAY, I did so. I seized every moment, made every moment count, I was on a high on life! And life was real good. And only good things came to me. The blessings that were supposed to come my way came, and the "bad stuff" were only challenges, it didn't phase me. The obstacles were opportunities in disguise.
So to my Black Belt on her quest: Seize the day! Carpe Diem!
Carpe Diem! Seize the day boys! Make your lives extraordinary!
Yours in service,ANDREW TRENTO
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