Find a comfortable position and take a full deep breath. Let your body settle from the crown of your head to the tips of your toes. Allow tension to flow from you with each exhale you take. Roll your shoulders down your back, settling in a space that feels natural and relaxed. If comfortable, place one hand over your heart and the other below your belly button—feel your chest rise with a slightly deeper inhale, holding its fullness for a moment, and let the air gently slip away. Find the rhythm of your breath, moving it into a slower, easy, gentle, and effortless pace. As your body settles, invite your mind to slow down, too. No matter what has occurred today, yesterday, this week, or last, remember that you can choose to hold space for yourself and honor what you need every moment. When you give yourself permission to settle in stillness, in the anchoring of your breath—in and out—you give yourself to release stress, worry, and anything inside or outside of you. Take another full deep breath and let it go. Slip away with my words, allowing them to guide you into a space of inner calm, the subconscious mind, the gap between where you’ve been and where you're going—that gap is the here and now. Take another full deep breath and let it go. We often forget that our lives are lived in moments, in the now. We allow yesterday to own us—find its ways into our thoughts, emotions, and actions. We bring forth broken pieces while we refuse to hold on to the good. When we are in the good, we easily concentrate on where we want to be—the goals, intentions, and the pieces that drive us forward while failing to remember that we need today to prosper. The reality is each day is a teacher. Each moment has something for you inside of it. When we are unaware, focused on everything but the moment, we are likely to miss the magic in which is the key for our abundance, ability to thrive, the very opening of our purpose, courage, and highest, truest, most authentic, greatest self. To fully claim your life, you must be IN your life. And your life is now. Take another full deep breath and let it go. Repeat after me if it serves you: I exist and live in the here and now. This beautiful understanding reminds me that I have the power to live within this moment instead of all the moments that have been or have yet to be. While my existence in this world, in the space I’ve created for myself, is the total of many things, my physical makeup, the people I’ve grown with, my culture, my community, education, thoughts, background, feelings, the past, in all of that, there is a universal truth, I am the embodiment of all of my experiences and each day offers something new to add to the whole of me. Whatever I feel, do, think, and experience is done in the present moment. I cannot live in the past or the future. I may think about the past and plan the future, but the present is the only place my existence creates change. From now on, my aim is to accept my life as it is, in each moment, without judgment, overthinking, or concern. Because what is, is what is meant to be. Everything I’ve encountered can be used for my highest good. Everything I know has the power to shift me into something better, into more in a way that pulls forth every lesson and action. The only way to do that is to make the choice today. Now. Take a full deep breath and let it go. In this now, I am shifting my mindset. I know that everything I need is already inside of me. I also know I cannot escape the past. I realize I cannot evade the outcome of the future. Instead, I intend to live with my highest value at the forefront of everything I do. I am an intentional creator with the pursuit of my greatest happiness and interest at hand. This interest is my purpose—my reason for being. I am the author of my story. My mission today is to pick up my pen and write the story of now. Each page, each day, builds into a full life story that I’m simply not ready to write the last page. I am no longer willing to spend all my time forecasting how the story will twist and turn or even end. Instead, with my heart, mind, and soul aligned and tied to each moment, I freely let go of any perceived limitations and move into a constant state of peace called acceptance. I accept the now. I accept changes in direction. I am courageous in a way only the present moment allows me to be. I am building a legacy in the fullest alignment of my story. Each time my acceptance fades, I will call myself home, back to the present. As I know that within any given moment, I can notice the many things happening around me. I have the power to feel my heart beating, listen to my breath move in and out, and feel the small movements of my inner and outer being. I will not push against discomfort. This is present moment awareness. I meet it often, but now I realize I have the power to live in it too. Take a full deep breath and let it go. I am choosing to dance with the now. I am ...
