Pause for a minute...

Just stop. And look at yourself. Observe your breath. Is the breathing shallow (just using upper chest muscles) or deep (using abdominal and chest muscles), is it slow or fast? Don't change anything about it. Now shift the focus from yourself to your immediate surroundings- what do you see, hear or smell? Just observe. Don't draw any conclusions or make any judgments about anything. 

This pause has brought you in the present moment. It has pulled you from the constant switch between past and future and brought you into the most precious moment, right now. Observe how you feel being in this moment. Free? That is the beauty of staying in the present moment. There is freedom, fearlessness, and lightness. This is real happiness. And isn't this what we are looking for from morning till night, day after day, year after year? In that perfect partner, holiday or a job? We find it (or we think we found it), when we get what we want and then it goes away. This cycle keeps on going. 

If you observe our mind consciously, 99% of the times you will catch it either in the past or the future. You will hardly find it in the present moment and we think that is normal. When all our lives, that background noise due to constant traffic of thoughts is there, we think that is what life is! Till it becomes quiet and you say "Ah! it feels better".  

We are hardly ever in the present,unless we are either in a high risk situation or doing a thrilling activity or in the nature. That is the reason we enjoy doing these things because they bring us in the present moment. At that time we just accept whatever it is and cope with it without any expectations or conclusions.

Now imagine the freedom and the power, if we slowly train our mind to do that all or almost all the time!! It is possible. It starts with being aware of our state by pausing and catching the mind in either past or future and then slowly bringing the focus to the present. Initially that presence in the present may last only for few seconds before we drift into past and future. But slowly with conscious awareness and effort that presence becomes longer and more frequent. You feel more calm, more accepting of the situations, and more fearless.

And this is what yoga teaches us and this is what the word "Yoga" itself means- to unite the mind with the body, to bring them together by being in the present.

The above thoughts are written after personally learning to pause and feeling the change slowly. Still, there is a long way to go but I feel blessed to begin this journey towards me!