S1.E27: Being Present
Being present means being fully engaged in the now: not stewing over the past or planning the future, but using all 5 of our senses to focus in on what's happening right now. Being present directly relates to the Law of Attraction because it brings our attention to appreciating the present.
Podcast music credit to: Caleb Britton @NeonBrotherDC
We're two sisters who believe that the purpose of life is to enjoy, create and have fun. We believe that as humans, we can have anything we want and things are always working out for us experience has taught us that the path to getting everything we want begins with ease. If you believe in miracles and happily ever after, or even if you just want to, then this is the podcast for you.
Speaker 1 (36s): Hi there. I'm your host, Kayla rain. I'm your co-host Adria Sha. And welcome back to attract it with ease. Hello again, Andrea. Hi. Hey, how are you today? I'm great. How are you? So good. Tell me what you're grateful for today and why I am grateful that I am going to be going back to school. That's something I've wanted to do for a few years now, and I just reapplied to the university today and hopefully we'll be starting soon. So I'm very excited about that.
That's cool. I'm grateful for my coworkers. I worked yesterday and I had a coworker who just really went out of her way to show me some processes that I haven't used before and explain them in great detail. And I was so appreciative of her patience and her willingness to share of her knowledge. I like that. Thank you. And the third one is kind of silly, but I have this new car and it's a natural gas vehicle. So the feeling apparatus is a little bit different and it attaches with a little bit of section.
So when I went to fuel my car on my way to work yesterday, I could not get the thing off when I was done. And it was only the third time I've done it. I was using all of my strength and intellect and it is not supposed to be as hard as it was. And I was on my way to work. And I kept thinking, what do I do? Do I call someone to come help me? Do I wait here at this deserted gas station until another person with a similar vehicle shows up, I'd ask them how to do it. I just kept hoping and sort of praying in a manner of speaking to be able to get it off.
And it, it only took a few minutes, but I did get it off successfully. And I'm so grateful for that. Otherwise you might still be sitting there exactly. Do you feel like you have it figured out for next time? I hope so. It wasn't any different than the other times. It was just more difficult and I'm not sure why. So in theory, I know how the process works, but that's funny. So I guess the moral of the story is every time you go to pump gas, just focused on the outcome that you want ahead of time.
Yes. I love it. Set my intention before I get there, instead of worrying or stressing whether or not that's
Speaker 0 (3m 0s): Going to happen
Speaker 2 (3m 1s): Again.
Speaker 0 (3m 3s): That's awesome. Well, I have a few things I'm grateful for today. Obviously I have a brand new job and I am so grateful for my coworkers. That's funny that we both had the honor list this week because there are a lot of people at this new job, a lot more than my last job. And everyone has just been so helpful and warm and welcoming. And I just really appreciate that. I appreciate that. You know, I'm eventually when I'm done training, going to be most of the people that work there, their boss.
And so it feels, it feels really great that they're, you know, maybe, maybe they're just trying to get in good early, but at least they're making me feel accepted and welcoming. And that's been a really nice transition for me. That's awesome. Then the next thing for me is pretty superficial, but I am really grateful for self-tanner. It's getting warmer here. I want to wear Capri pants. It's almost time for shorts. I've been showing my ankles a little bit. I have these really cute joggers that I love and they show my ankles and I am what mom would have referred to as winsome white.
Speaker 2 (4m 12s): I love it.
Speaker 0 (4m 14s): I'm so grateful for self-tanners. And I tried a new one this year and it's actually smells amazing and it's been really easy to use. And so I'm grateful that I'm not blinding people as the weather gets,
Speaker 2 (4m 29s): I'm going to have to hit you up for some recommendations. Cause I am going to blind people otherwise.
Speaker 0 (4m 33s): Absolutely. I'll fill you in. And then my last one is I'm really grateful for good music. You know, we talked about a, having a happy playlist on one of our past episodes and I definitely have a happy playlist, but there is one song that has been stuck in my head for the last week. And every time I get in my car, I turn it on and I play it over and over again. And I'm jamming out to it. That song is uncle crackers. Good to be me.
That song just is such a feel good song listeners, if you've never listened to it, or if you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up, pull it up on YouTube or Spotify or whatever platform. Listen to that song. I promise you it's a pick me up and I'm grateful for that because it just puts me in a great mood and love it. So excited about that. So Adrian, over the last few weeks, we've talked about a number of different things that relate to this week's topic.
Last week's episode, we talked about creating a positive life list and keeping track of all of the good things happening in our life. Recognizing the positives, keeping track of like all the positive attributes of how life is right now, where we currently are, even though we're working towards other things that we want today, want to talk about the concept of being present. So when I say that, just tell me what that means to you.
When I say I want to talk about being present, but do you think I want to talk about, you know,
Speaker 1 (6m 11s): I didn't tell you this, but I'm actually reading a book on that very topic right now. So I have a little bit of insight into what it means.
Speaker 0 (6m 18s): Well, take it away. No, no, you're still in charge. I just want us to be able to keep up with what you're saying. What is the book called? I need to check it out. It's the power of now. Oh, I love that book. Yes,
Speaker 1 (6m 32s): It's so good. That's what I'm reading right now. And as I'm reading it, I have realized that I'm, I'm really not very present or have not been very present in most of my life lately. So it's, to me, it's just the idea of experiencing fully exactly what you're living, right. That moment, instead of in your mind, living in the past or the future.
Speaker 0 (6m 55s): Exactly. You said it very well. And it's funny that you said all of that, because my first question I was going to ask you aside from, what do you think that means is when was the last time that you can remember being fully present and in the moment? Wow,
Speaker 1 (7m 11s): Well, I'm currently only fully present and in the moment when I'm listening to the book and being reminded that I need to be,
Speaker 0 (7m 18s): I doubt it. I bet you're fully present right now. Completely undistracted paying attention to the conversation. I think that sometimes we don't give ourselves enough credit. I, I definitely feel like when we're podcasting, we're fully present because this is going out to the world. So I get distracted. It's going to come across. Yeah. But no, really when, aside from the book, can you think of a time and maybe it wasn't recently, but can you think of a time in your life when you could say you were fully present?
Speaker 1 (7m 49s): Yeah. Anytime I'm experiencing something either really positive or really negative. I think those correspond with times that I've been present, because it, it draws all my attention and I, I can't be in my head when I'm going through something like that.
Speaker 0 (8m 4s): Yeah. That's interesting that you said that because it kind of had it in my notes like various times that I can think of, or people in general probably are fully present. And some of the things that I wrote down were tragic events. Like I've been thinking about being in a car accident and when you're going through that experience, it's like time stops. It slows down. And it's like in a movie where everything just moving in slow motion. And you're very aware of like my Newt movements of your body and the car and the people around you.
And the sounds, I don't know if you've had that experience, but back in 2005, I was in a car accident where I was rear-ended by a drunk driver and I can vividly remember the screeching of the tires and just how the whole situation played out. And it ended up being a hit and run. And it was a, it was a very complicated situation, but I can tell you every little thing about that moment. And in fact, I think I mentioned it about when we were talking about inspiration and how I put my seatbelt on just prior.
And I'm so grateful for that, but that experience, I can literally go back to that moment in time and recall all the details of what happened because I was fully present in that moment. So I definitely think that tragic moments can cause you to be present. And then I also had huge accomplishments or positive moments. Like you said, I think big things in life. Like maybe if you have a child, when you get married, maybe your graduation, those sorts of things. I think it's very easy to take yourself back to those moments mentally in time and be able to recall specific details unlike you would be able to.
On other days we have a friend from Louisiana that just dropped in town on us two nights ago. And he was talking about the last time he saw us, which was when we were living in Sedona and he was recalling events from that evening. And he said, I remember that you made sweet potato fries and we were doing this. And I was like, what, how do you even remember that? That was, and I was, he just remembered all these details about the evening. And I thought to myself, that was only about two years ago. And I honestly can't remember why he came in town, what we were doing.
He claims Dan was gone that night and I'm like, that's so weird to me because I don't remember hanging out with him by myself. And he has all these details that he remembers when I think about that in relation to being present. And he was obviously a lot more present when he came over and then I was at night because I could, I remember he came by that's about all I remember. I don't remember the conversation. I couldn't tell you what we ate. I just, you know, I don't, I don't really remember the details and he remembers all the details about it.
And so I think that's a prime example of how we tend to live our life, not being present. If you even think about, you know, last week, if I just picked a random day of the week and I said, Hey, Adrian, last Thursday, what did you eat for lunch? There was a good chance. You couldn't tell me. And it wasn't even a week ago, you know, like we just go through life in these motions, I think about driving a car and how we just, our mind wanders. And there's so many times when you'll be driving on autopilot, literally you're going to work or you're going home or going to the store someplace that you go all the time and you're not even conscious about your driving.
You get halfway there and you kind of suddenly become present for a minute. And you're like, Oh my gosh, how did I even get here? Because your mind was so focused on other things you've experienced that. Right.
Speaker 1 (11m 45s): I have. And I often listen to audio books in the car and I've noticed sometimes I'll even be listening to an audio book and then realize, I don't know what was said in the last five, because my mind has
Speaker 0 (11m 54s): Been on something completely different. I'm crazy how easy it is to do that. Yeah. And that's how we go about life. So when I ask the question, what does it mean to be present? I think the easiest way to say it, and you sort of summed it up is you're not thinking about the past. You're not thinking about the future. You're completely engaged in what's happening right now. And so some examples of what we tend to do is we're thinking about what we're going to have for lunch or dinner.
Well, that's the future. And now we're sitting around in the moment going, Oh, where do I want to go for lunch? What sounds good? And you know, we're thinking about a couple hours from now, or we're replaying a conversation that we had in our head, whether it went really well or whether we didn't know how to interpret it. And we're thinking about, Oh, did, did they mean that? Did I say the right thing? You know, or maybe it's a good conversation. Maybe you just met a new person and you really liked them and they sent you a text and you're like thinking about what they texted you and you were trying to read into, did that smiley mean anything that was a weird smiley?
What was that smiling? Was that kind of how to raise eyebrow? Was that like flirtatious or was it I don't understand. You know, and we sit there and we play through these conversations in our head and it's fun to do those kinds of things, but it's not at all focused on the present moment. So we tend to do those things where we're constantly thinking about something that just happened or is going to happen, or we're planning something that's about to happen. We're planning our next vacation.
We're looking forward to the weekend. We're thinking about what we're going to do when we get home from work and we're not fully engaged in the present moment. Another opportunity that I can think of when I tend to be engaged and actually present is when I'm training someone or when I am training. And I can totally relate to that because I just trained people to do my job that I just left. And I think I told you, Andrea, I would come home at night and I would be mentally spent.
Like, I felt like I couldn't even put a sentence together because I had to be so constantly focused on everything I was doing and verbalize everything that I was doing and do it in a slow pace, make sure people are taking those, making sure they're getting it. I had to create SOP standard operating procedure videos. And I had to walk through everything that I did for my job. And there's no way to do that without being fully present. But it's funny how, because we're not typically fully present how mentally draining that was for me to spend days and days doing that.
Now I'm on the flip side of it, where I'm the person being trained. And I have so much stuff to learn with new softwares, new systems, new scripts, and verbiage and all of these things with my new job that I feel the same way I come home every night mentally spent because I'm just trying to memorize everything and absorb everything and listen to different people and how they describe this and how they say that when they're offering things to the clients and wow, it's a lot.
And I think about it and I go, this shows me how much of my life I really am not present. So all of that being said, Adrian, tell me what you think it is like to be present when you are present. How do you, what do you think that's like? And how do you know if you're present?
Speaker 1 (15m 31s): I have discovered that I live so much of my life in my head, in the past or in the future, either reliving things that happen positive or negative or wondering how things are going to turn out in the future, that when I'm able to live in the present and it's still, you know, this is like brand new on my radar. So something I'm still really working at doing, but it's just so much easier because there's no mental baggage with it. There's no rehashing things or wondering, or worrying or anxiety or fear or anything like that.
It's just calming and, you know, he can just be,
Speaker 0 (16m 10s): Yeah, for sure. For sure. It's, it's the ease that we've been talking about, right? Because you're not stressed or worried or wondering you're, you're just appreciating what is, so that leads me to the question of what does being present have to do with the law of attraction while it kind of set it leading into this conversation, but we've been talking a lot about part of the way to attract what you want is to be grateful for what you have now and being grateful for what you have now is part of being present.
It doesn't mean you have to be grateful in order to be present, but when you're present is a lot easier to be grateful because you're in the moment you're thinking about what's going on. And when I really think about times in my life that I have been present, I would say that I'm using all of my five senses and maybe not consciously, but when I can go back and take these moments in time where I have vivid memories, I can remember what I was wearing. I can remember who I was with. I can remember what I felt like. I can remember what the air felt like, whether it was indoors or outdoors, whether it was cold weather, it was sunny, whether it was windy.
I can remember if there were, you know, like the car accident, I can remember the sound of the squealing tires or other moments in nature. I can hear the birds, you know, when we were in have a super high falls, I remember laying in the hammock at night and just looking up at the stars and just how incredible the sky looked with no light pollution. And I could hear the water running and I could hear the frogs. There were so many, and I took a recording of it because I wanted to make sure that I would not forget that, but I've actually only played the recording one time ever.
And it was right when we got home because I can literally almost hear it in my head. And I can visually like, take myself back to that moment. Do you feel like you're using your five senses when you're fully present? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18m 12s): Leanne, it's interesting that you say that because one thing that I have heard therapists say is that if you are feeling distress in any particular situation that tuning into all five of your senses will help lower that distress in and of itself. So just noticing like the texture of the seat that you're sitting on or the way the air moves across your skin. So it's kind of like, I don't know which came first, the chicken or the egg, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know. I don't know if feeling those things up you to be more present or if being more present is what lead you to feel those things.
But there's definitely a connection. I think you're onto something with the way that you integrate all of your senses in the moment.
Speaker 0 (18m 54s): I don't know that it's always an intentional thing, but when I think back to those moments that I can remember, you know, I can, I can remember the last bits of time with mom, you know, my last one-on-one conversation with her. And I can remember vivid details from that experience. I can remember when she passed away and her funeral, and I can remember vivid details from those moments, but when you take your life as a whole and you try and figure out how many days of the days that I've lived, can I actually remember, or remember a portion of it's very slim?
You know, it's probably less than a hundred total days, no matter what your age is, there's probably just these bits and moments. And a lot of what we actually recall as memories comes from photographs, which helps us recall those memories. But when you're thinking about like a true memory, you, do you remember the sound of someone's voice or you remember the sound of something going on around you, you can think of, like you said, the feel you could probably think of the feel of a blanket or pajamas or your pillow or whatever the memory is.
And you can kind of have those census take you back in. They also say that smell is one of the strongest, like memory sensations that you smell something, and it brings back floods of memories. And I think it's completely related to that being present because we're in where using our five senses. We're definitely more present than when we're just kind of lost in our mind. So let me ask you this, Adrian, since we're talking about being more present and you're reading a book about it, how do you think we can be more present?
Speaker 1 (20m 39s): Well, as you were talking, I was just going to ask you, do you think that that means by tuning into the sensations that are coming in from all five senses that that automatically can shift us into a space of being more present in, in any particular moment?
Speaker 0 (20m 54s): Absolutely. Yeah. You know, and it's funny because I hadn't been thinking about that till we just kind of went there with this conversation. But if you just took a minute and literally focused on like how you, your clothes felt, if you just rubbed, like you said, rubbed the seat that you're sitting on, rubbed the fabric of like your pants or something, and thought about how that felt, that completely takes your mind to that thought. So you stop thinking about whatever else you were thinking about. And you're now suddenly on that thought. Now the trick is staying in that space of being present, not just going there for two seconds to be like, Oh, that feels weird.
Or that feels nice, you know, or whatever. So I agree. Yes. I think focusing on your five senses for sure can cause you to be present. How do you think you can stay present for a period of time? Because it's probably not realistic to think that we can always be present. Maybe we can, maybe that's what enlightened.
Speaker 2 (21m 53s): Right?
Speaker 0 (21m 55s): So I, I think it's unrealistic to expect that we will be, but I think it's good to want to be present. And as we talk about how it relates to the law of attraction and being grateful for what we have now and focusing on the now, how do you think we can help ourselves be more present more often? Well, I'm hoping
Speaker 1 (22m 17s): That you're going to tell me because the only thing
Speaker 2 (22m 22s): I know
Speaker 1 (22m 23s): I'm not very far into the book I'm on chapter two. The only thing that is working for me right now is to, to recognize when I see my mind wandering and try to shift it back into exactly what I'm experienced in that moment.
Speaker 0 (22m 39s): I think that's huge. That's exactly like what we've been talking about with flipping the script or looking for the positives and choosing to be grateful, deciding which end of the stick to pick up, you know, the positive or the negative, all of that. It's a conscious choice. So making a conscious choice when you recognize that something, isn't the way that you want it choosing the opposite, whether it's being present in your thoughts or choosing to find the good in a situation, instead of focusing on the negative, all of that is learned behavior.
And the more that you do it, the more it becomes a habit or an easier action for you. So I think that's a great recommendation and I think you're absolutely right that just having an awareness of when you're not present and trying to kind of shake yourself a little bit and be like, okay, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, focus on, focus on this. Thinking about that. That reminds me of the granted through COVID. I haven't gone out to dinner much, but the few times that I have, and I've eaten in a restaurant in the last, we'll say six months, I can look around the room at the other people and you can tell who's present.
And who's not because half the people they're sitting there on their phones while they're eating dinner. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. I'm not even engaged with the person they're having dinner with. They're not having a conversation. They're not paying attention to each other. They're just on their phones. And I always think that's so sad. I always think, Oh my gosh, here, you like took the time to go out to dinner and have this experience through COVID Haven, you know, where we'll be most people aren't doing that and don't have the ability to do that. Don't want to do that. You know, and, and yet people are not fully present in the meal in the conversation in the person that's in front of them.
And I think that's unfortunate, but I think that's a prime example of it. So I do have a recommendation as to how we can be more present. And I think I might, I can't remember for sure, but I think I might have mentioned this briefly on one of our first episodes, but I'm going to get into it a little bit today and that's the concept of bottling things up. And Adrian, do you remember, I know we've talked about this off air, but do you think, have I talked about it on the podcast yet?
Speaker 1 (24m 55s): I think you mentioned it once. Yeah. But give us some details.
Speaker 0 (24m 59s): So bottling things up is a term that I came up with. There might be other people that say it too, but this is how I picture it to me. I have memories like I've said good and bad that I can literally think about and almost take myself back to that moment. Some of them are really good experiences. Some of them are tragic experiences, but in life I've had. And I'm sure Adrian, that you can say the same for yourself.
And I'm sure our listeners can re relate. I've had times in my life where things have been so wonderful in the moment that you don't want the moment to end. Have you had those experiences Adria? Absolutely. Okay. Well I think even sometimes we get that way when we're on vacation and we realize, Oh, I have to go back to work tomorrow. I just, I wish I could have just a couple of more days, you know, that kind of experience, but literally it could be the night of your first kiss with a loved one.
It could be, I don't know, some incredible night under the stars and the Milky way is just shining and it feels magical. I'll tell you when we've visited the ancient bristle cone forest in California, we've shot the Milky way out there. And it feels like we are in a fairy tale. We're in the middle of nowhere. There's no one around where it's 12,000 foot elevation, zero light pollution. And the sky is just brilliant.
And every time we've gone, we've seen falling stars. And these are the oldest trees in the world. They are incredible. And if you use just a little bit of lighting on them for night photography, it looks like trees from another planet. And it's just this magical experience. And for me, it's actually emotional. Like I get choked up being there in those moments and every time I've been there and experienced that, I've thought to myself, Oh my gosh, I wish I could just kind of soak up this moment and keep it forever because I just, it's one of those things where you want to go back to it.
You want to go back to it. So to me, that's bottling it up. What I do is I literally purposely try and memorize the moment. So it's what you were saying, Adrian, about using your five senses, but I stop, literally stop and I pay attention. I look around, okay, what do I see right now? And I try and memorize, like take a mental picture of like what I see what's in front of me. And then I stop. And I think about what I smell and in the ancient bristle cone forest, it's just the cleanest purest air.
And it's usually a little bit brisk, a slight wind. It's not crazy windy, but a little bit of a wind. And I feel that on my skin. And I think about how I'm kind of chilly, but I try and appreciate it and go, Oh, that's part of the experience. And I try and look up at the sky, look at, look for some constellations and try. And I mean, it's pretty hard to memorize the sky, but it didn't really think about like, okay, what constellations are out right now this time of the year? And what does the sky look like?
And what does it feel like to be here? And it's just this peaceful, incredible moment. And I take those experiences and literally try and memorize them. So I pull myself completely into the moment, focus on my five senses, but try and memorize it because I want to be able to so-call bottle it up. And in my mind, anything that I bought a lap, it's like, I'm putting it in a bottle and I'm going to go put that bottle on a shelf that any other time that I want to, I can go to that shelf.
I can pull that bottle down. I can open it up and experience that all over again. Yes, I drink wine. So I, of course, I'm going to make that analogy where others might not relate to this, but here top shelf wine is the most expensive wine, the best bottles. So I'm always trying to find those moments that are my top shelf bottles. Like those are my top moments. They're the, the ones I always want to go back to. And so I can't say that every day I have moments that I bottle up.
In fact, I only have maybe three to five a year. I w I should focus on finding more, but I do have these moments where it's just so incredible. I almost have to remind myself, like you said, Adrian, like catch myself that I'm appreciating it so much. You know what? I got a bottle this up because this is so good. This is something worth saving. This is worth coming back to, and to me bottling it up is so much better than a picture because a picture can remind me of like, Oh yeah, it was so pretty.
And Oh yeah, I went there. I forgot I did that. But bottling it up is like, re-experiencing it all over again. So I know I kind of mentioned it, but Adria, whether it was consciously or subconsciously, can you relate to that idea? Have you ever kind of tried to memorize a moment?
Speaker 1 (30m 13s): I don't know if I have tried to memorize a moment and I wish now that I had, but there are moments that I inadvertently memorized and can revisit. And I do. I, I do that from time to time and it's, it's amazing. So it would be nice to be more conscious about it. Definitely.
Speaker 0 (30m 32s): Yeah. I remember the very first time that I consciously did it and I might've mentioned this on the podcast that I mentioned bottling it up, but I was on a Mexican cruise and it was with my last relationship, but it was just such a wonderful vacation. And we were sitting the last night of the cruise on our balcony and we had a room that was off the back of the ship. So we just had full ocean view behind us with just the waves from the cruise ship.
And so you just had this complete horizon with the sun and the water and it was our last night. So I really wanted to soak it up and we were able to order room service. So we got wine ordered to the room. We got our dinner ordered to the room. Like we just stayed. And we sat on our balcony with just this peaceful, incredible view. And you could see fish swimming by and the sun set. And it was just so amazing.
And it was a little bit chilly. And I remember being wrapped up in a blanket. I remember what I was experiencing. I remember how it smelled. I remember how the air felt. I remember what it looked like. And I thought to myself in that moment, I need to memorize this because this is not an experience I maybe will ever have again. And so that was the first time that I consciously decided to do it. And I really can go back to that moment and just instantly take myself back to that evening on the ship, on, on the balcony.
And I love it. And I love that. It's something that I've trained myself to now do, because since then I have dozens of bottled up memories that I can pull off the shelf and go back to. So that being said, Adrian, what do you think our action item is for our listeners this week?
Speaker 1 (32m 29s): Oh, I hope it's going to be, to try this out for ourselves,
Speaker 0 (32m 32s): For sure. For sure. Now the challenging thing is there's not always every day going to be a moment that you want to bottle up, but obviously we can focus on being more present. We talked about that. We talked about trying to bring ourselves into the now trying to focus on, okay, I'm not being present. I'm thinking about once I'm thinking about the conversation that I just had, I'm thinking about that email. I've got to respond to. I don't like what they said. I've got to think about what I want to say instead of sitting and really appreciating the people that we're with, the things that we have, what's going on around us.
And I want to just reiterate that the way that this being present plays into the law of attraction, I believe is we've really been talking about gratitude for what we have enjoying and appreciating what we have while working on attracting more. The very best thing you can do to try and attract better things is appreciate what you already have. And we talked about it last week, that when you're past this stage in life, there will be a time that you look back on this stage and there will be something, if not many things that you miss, whether it's your neighbors or your living situation, or your job, or your car, or your lack of stress of this or your schedule or whatever the case may be.
And so we want to find ways to stop and appreciate what is now and part of that is being present. So yes, focus on being more present, but our action item listeners is to find a moment. I'm going to challenge you to try and find a moment sometime in the next week that you can practice bottling up. And it may not be a top shelf memory if it's just a regular week, but you can at least experience the behavior of stopping and saying, this is a really good moment.
I really appreciate what is right now in this moment. And I'm going to stop and I'm going to memorize all the details. What am I wearing? What do I hear? How do I feel? What does the air feel like around me? What do I smell? What am I doing? Who am I with? If anyone, you know, and taking that moment, it could be, you know, you could create this moment. You could draw yourself a bubble bath and light some candles and bring a candy bar.
That's that's my thing is bring the chocolate and the wine, you know, you can create the moment. And then when you're sitting in the hot bath, you can literally just sit there and soak in how good it feels and memorize how peaceful it is and how nobody's blowing up your phone. And you don't have to be doing anything. And you can just appreciate the nice candlelight and how relaxing it is. And you have a moment to yourself, you know, you can create the moment and then memorize it because once you get in the habit of having these experiences where you can bottle them up, you too will have a top shelf of these incredible memories, but you'll also start getting in that, that habit and the behavior of, like you said, Adrian, finding opportunities to pull ourselves in the moment to make ourselves be present and to be grateful for what the moment is, because we don't want all of the moments we can reflect back on to be like the highest highs and the lowest lows of our life.
We want to experience all of life to the fullest. So if the only days we can take ourselves back to are the car accidents, the lost, loved ones, the weddings and the births, then we're missing everything else in between. And there's a lot, a lot of good and there's good in every day. And we want to make sure that we take more time to appreciate the now Adrian, do you have any thoughts or things you want to say about this?
Speaker 1 (36m 39s): I think what you said is beautiful. And one thing that I have been thinking about as I have been thinking about this subject and reading this book is that so many of us want to avoid suffering. And so much of our suffering comes it's hard to, well, I shouldn't say it's hard to suffer in the now, but most of our suffering is not because of what we're experiencing in that exact moment. At least in my case, any kind of mental suffering is often as a result of reliving past experiences that were negative or worrying about future things that may or may not happen.
And so I love the idea that being present and living in the now will greatly reduce mental suffering just in and of itself.
Speaker 0 (37m 27s): For sure. And I appreciate you bringing that up and it reminds me, I'm sure I've said this on the podcast, because I say this in life constantly, but now really is all that we have. We only have this moment. Tomorrow's not promised. We don't know if whatever thing we're worrying about in the future is even going to come about. We don't know how long any of us are going to be on this planet. We could die today. And if we don't take time to appreciate today, then it was a wasted day and yesterday already happened.
It already occurred. We can't do anything about the past. We've talked about that. We've talked about choosing our thoughts and really this moment that you're in is the only moment you can do anything with it's. All you have is this very moment. So I hope our listeners are being present right now, listening to this and really getting something out of it. I feel like this is a really easy concept, but an important conversation, because I do think so much of life. We just go through autopilot and it doesn't mean that we're positive, or it doesn't mean that we're negative.
We just allow our mind to just aimlessly flow. And that's why I think so many people do yoga meditation. These things is that they want to be able to be pulled into the present. They want to shut off the mind wandering that happens. And that's just how we have learned to function. We just, we think it's normal to just kind of let our mind go wherever. And that's what we tend to do. But like I've said over and over again, and I even said, last week, we are not our bodies.
We control our bodies. And that includes our mind so we can control our thoughts. We can control the behaviors, we can control our habits. And it's just consciously, like you said, Adriana setting here, intention to be more present and to try and catch yourself when you're not try and readjust it. And then when you have those incredible wonderful moments, stop and appreciate them, but memorize them. And if you can't find those moments, create those moments.
Because if you're not having a moment, then you probably do need a bubble bath and you should go draw one right now. So that's our action item for our listeners is to find a moment this week that you can practice bottling up. Let me know how it goes. I'd love to hear from you, our listeners and Adria. We do have a winner from this week. This is one of our older reviews. Someone who hasn't been picked before, and it's actually a review from audible from Dan.
So Dan send us an email@helloatattractitwithease.com. Tell us your theme word of the year and your address. And we will send you your custom theme bracelet. Adrian, would you like to tell our listeners what I'm doing?
Speaker 1 (40m 26s): Yes. Every week, this year, we will be drawing a winner from those people who have submitted reviews of our podcast on the various review platforms. And the winner will receive a custom bracelet with their theme word of the year.
Speaker 0 (40m 42s): That's right. And I've said this the last few weeks, but our reviews have really slowed down, which is interesting because our downloads have not. So we know people are out there listening, let us know what you think right now. As of this recording, we have 19 reviews on Apple podcasts. I'd love to see us get to 25 or 30. So once again, please leave us a review. Even if you don't want to bracelet, that's what helps us grow. That's what helps us continue to be able to touch the lives of other people.
And if you know someone that can benefit from this podcast, please send them a link, send them our way. We want to be able to inspire. We're doing this entirely to help you. And if you're getting something positive out of it, be sure to share it with someone else. That's it for this week, Adrian. I appreciate it. It was fun as usual. I hope you have a great day.
Speaker 3 (41m 34s): Have a great day. Thanks. Bye. Bye 