It is friday evening and we are on our way out the door to have dinner with our friends. But it has been one of those weeks where every moment was another a’ha moment and I just had to share it with all of you.
I have had the book, The Power Of Now for almost five years now. My old roomie in NYC gave it to me after he read it and said, Katie this book has your name all over it. I was so excited to read it and I think I might have read two pages and then put it down.
This book has moved with me from The East Village to Brooklyn Heights, then across the country to our new home in Manhattan Beach and then this past September to our new home in El Segundo. Needless to say, I haven’t been able to part with this book but I haven’t read more than a few pages in the past five years.
It has been on my nightstand since September, I put it there the day we moved into our new home. I look at it every day and never read it. I truly believe that when you are ready for something, it shows up. Yesterday I got home from Mattel and just needed to take a moment to sit and recharge. I had so many things that I “needed” to do, yet I had no mental energy to focus on anything. I decided to own my own business so I could stop and smell the flowers, take an afternoon off if I wanted to. Yet I hardly ever do that. I took my own advice yesterday and did what I needed to do. Sit in the sun, soak up some vitamin D and just be. When I went to get my sunglasses out of my bedroom I saw this book. I picked it up, took it outside and then I sat for two hours reading.
I honestly can’t remember the last time I sat and didn’t look at my phone when I was reading. I haven’t read a good book in a few months. This book totally changed my day, it changed the way I taught my yoga class last night and I felt a little lighter after I read for that long.
This entire week has been one of those weeks, where each moment has helped me realize that I am in the right place. Sometimes I have my doubts, that voice inside my head talks to me and it isn’t always that nice. I have been meditating again, I have started to shift my focus from doing to being and finding my center of calm again.
This quote is what really helped me shift this week, it is very powerful and I suggest writing it on a post it note, “make the now the primary focus of your life. Say yes to life and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.”
How can you start shifting your focus from the past, the future and start focusing on the now?
Big Hugs & Health,
Katie
Hi Kate,
Great read. The issue I had and have with these types of books including therapist, gurus, self help books, none of the writers give gratitude where all this comes from. It’s coined as their own ideas and path. Simply put its a 2,500 year old religion – Buddhism.
People need to be careful when following false teachers and or preachers.
Hope all is well
If I remember correctly, Eckhardt Tolle does reference buddism in The Power of Now. I don’t see him as a false teacher at all (you didn’t say he was, but you did put it out there!) – he doesn’t claim to have invented any new religion – it’s more like he opens a door to a greater awareness and appreciation of the world around us that helps us find more joy in living – if we’re willing to walk through it by changing the way we think! If that’s a bad thing, well, then call me a rebel! I have found both this and A New Earth to be helpful and uplifting books.
Love all of the thoughts/feedback brought up after reading my post. That is what I truly enjoyed while reading his book, once we are truly present every thought we feel is our own truth.