Our Past, Present, and Future Life explored

This past week, my mom’s dear friend died after a short bout with cancer.  She was also my dear childhood friend’s mom.  

As I am working through this grief, what came to mind was so many memories of my past life with her. Memories that keep me laughing,  like after both their husbands died, and they asked me to make sure they didn’t have any chin hairs. Her and my mom's support of me during my high school years was a great gift. Looking back I appreciated I had two very strong women making sure the mistakes I was making were not too big.

Then I was thinking about what I’ve learned in Yoga about staying in the present moment and thought about the many Buddhist monks and the books I’ve read who tell us to stay present and not look into the past or the future, I realized I love looking at my past self and future self to see where I’ve been and also to see where I have yet to go, and it’s a reminder of those who helped me in my past and will help me in my future.

Past life:

When we look into our past, we sometimes only remember the negative aspects of our prior life, which may be unhealthy. If we focus on the mistakes we made or things we said that may not have been our best selves, it can make for an unhealthy mindset. Let's look at our past selves and memories with laughter and resilience and know that we did great things and had special moments with loved ones, including ourselves. This is a positive way to reach back and learn from these moments, not judge what we did and why we did it. Looking at our past with humor and laughter can change our mindset from a painful place to a happy place.

Present life:

When you are in the present moment, are you completely aware of what you are doing or who you are talking to? When I am teaching a yoga or pilates class, when I think about the next couple of moves, I tend to forget what I was doing.  It is always amazing to me how looking forward, I lose my train of thought.   When you are with someone, are you present to them? (I see you cell phones!) When you are with yourself, are you aware of where your mind is? When you are with friends, are you listening or thinking about what you will say next?  

The present moment is a challenging place for me to be, but I find breathing so helpful to reset myself into the present moment and stay focused on what is happening around me. 

Future life:

Do you live here?  Are you always thinking about what is next on your calendar, where you are going next week, next year? While I love to plan vacations and weekends. I found it is best for me to take some time in my day to look forward and see what activities or vacations I want to take so it doesn’t take up my whole day or all my thoughts.  If I get them written down, then I can stay as present as possible when I need to be. 

Do you take an intentional pause in your day to see where your mind has gone? In class, I always say the “Power is in the Pause” Let’s try this off the mat as well.