Why are you rushing around all the time? What can you do about it? What are you waiting for?

Impatience, irritation and frustration are so common in our society.  We pack our lives with too many things, then rush around from one thing to the next.  We can get frustrated in traffic jams, always trying to get one over on other drivers, overtaking/undertaking, speeding away from the traffic lights.  Do you find yourself sitting at traffic lights frustrated at how long its taking?  Do you find yourself queuing at the supermarket checkout irritated about how slow the person in front  or the cashier are being?  Do you find yourself feeling hurried when getting up and going to work?  Are you stressed in the traffic going to work?

What are you waiting for?  What are your hurrying for?  Whats the rush?
When you get to work, you then spend a lot of the time clock watching for your lunch break, or time to go home. For what?
You're going to get home from the supermarket or from work to go home or somewhere else.  Whats the rush?  
We are always anticipating that the next moment in our lives will be better than the one we are in.  But the next moment is just another moment and our life is made up of these moments.  Our life can be found in all these moments, in the traffic jam, in the queue at the checkout, in the walking to work.
We rush home to what?  To spend time with our family?  To have our dinner?  To relax?  When you're with your family, are you 100% with them or are you thinking about what job you need to do next, cook dinner, sort out the washing.  
Or are you carrying stress or overthinking from the day you've had at work, or a difficult conversation you had with a friend?  do you really relax?  When you're cooking dinner are you rushing to cook dinner because theres something on tv?  Or you're going out with friends?  When you're out with friends are you 100% present?  Or are you thinking that you need to keep an eye on the time because you don't want to have a late night because you have to get up for work.
So many of us work to live and live to work.  What for?  We then look forward to our 2 week holiday, where we can relax and spend time with our family or friends.  Do we relax, are we present on our holiday?  Do we know how to be present?  Maybe we unwind for the first week, but then the 2nd week is often spent, wistfully counting down the days until the holiday ends and we're back to work.
Some of us love our work, but are still spending a lot of time clock-watching, hurrying to the next task.  
Not meaning to be depressing but this is how a lot of us spend a lot of our time: clock-watching, waiting for the next thing to happen, hurrying from one task to another, wishing away the time we spend queuing, commuting, travelling, wishing our lives away, looking forward to our next holiday.  Then when we have an activity we really want to be in, we are untrained in knowing how to enjoy the moment, so that moment passes all too soon, and we didn't even relish it and enjoy it to the full.

Observe the sitting in the traffic.  Let the car in the side road come in front of you.  Notice your frustration.  Drive at the speed limit.  How does that feel?  Frustrating?

Our life is happening in the moment.  Right now.  How do we become in the moment, the present moment, the here and now?  We stop.  Right now.  Breathe.  Notice our breath.  Notice the rise and fall of our chest.  Notice the sounds around you.  Notice the colours around you.  Notice your physical body.  Are you aware of your hands, your back, your feet, the muscles of your face.

I think most of us would agree, ultimately, we want to feel peace of mind, contentment, happiness.

The more we practise being in the present moment, the more peace we invite into our lives.  Our creative power is in the here and now.

Courses, workshops and meditation groups in Brighton with Elaine Gibbons.

www.elainegibbons.co.uk