Saturday 28 February 2009

Savouring the moment

The work I do involves coaching others. As part of the ongoing training for the job, we have been introduced to the concepts of Positive Psychology, so I have been working my way through the book Authentic Happiness by Martin E.P. Seligman. The chapter that has resonated with me relates to savouring the moment, being mindful. I think the appeal lies in the fact that creativity, for me, relies on slowing down and being mindful. I'm trying very hard to apply the principle to more of my life, because it's something that makes me feel calm and relaxed.

As part of applying the principle, I have been deliberately slowing down my reading. I've always been a fast reader - I can read a book in an afternoon. So, I am taking my time, and considering passages that appeal. I'm currently reading The Other Side of You by Salley Vickers, and the following passage really made me stop and consider -

I've always thought it remarkable that, while our bodies stand in the visible world, we ourselves are not in the world of three dimensions and our inner life has no direction in space. And, equally, how little of another person's reality is visible to us. We see their form, their features, their shifts of expression but all that constitutes their sense of self remains unseen. And yet this visible self is what to the individual constitutes their real identity.

Just typing this has made me resume my contemplation of this statement...

3 comments:

The Idaho Beauty said...

I've been contemplating this concept lately from the viewpoint of suicide. How many times do you hear acquaintances, family and friends of someone who does something totally over the top like suicide say they had no idea the person was that unhappy, contemplating such an action, just wasn't like the person they knew.

But we all have an outer persona we present in public, often the persona we have been taught to present regardless of feelings churning inside. Happy on the outside, crying on the inside. We often do not wish to share the hurt inside and others prefer not to see it as it would upset the applecart, so to speak.

So this quotation really hits home, expresses this idea I've been mulling so wonderfully and clearly.

Tangled Stitch said...

This is something I've been dealing with a lot lately. Living in the moment, not yesterday nor tomorrow. I have a tendency to rush through life so I'm trying to slow down. Recently I did a hand embroidery piece called Just Hand. It was made just for the love of the solitary stitch taking time and using it as a meditation.

Margaret Cooter said...

Thanks for commenting on my Celtic Connections quilt, Rhonda. I wonder if "tor" could be a word in both Viking and Celtic languages? perhaps with different meanings... I simply took a list of words off a website (http://members.fortunecity.com/gerdewnansek/placenames.html) - without doing thorough research. Isn't it interesting what you come across, when making quilts!

As for savouring the moment - this is something that's definitely worth doing. At this moment, so many trees here have burst into white blossom - I have been stopping and savouring those, in passing.