Notice the moments for which all the struggle, strive and difficulties were worth it.
I saw a man called Daniel Schmachtenberger speak at an event in London a few weeks ago. And one story he told caught me and has stayed with me. It went something like this.
Schmachtenberger, in his late teens, was sitting meditating at sunset (or maybe sunrise) when an insight came to him: if all the struggles, trials and tribulations of life had been necessary to create this moment, it would be worth it. This moment, alone, in and of itself, was worth everything else.
More than that, once he had seen this insight, then suddenly he saw that he had had many more moments like this. Many more moments that all the suffering and challenge of life were worth it for. Many thousands of moments that he would incarnate, just for this moment.
And once I heard him say it, I started seeing this too, in my life.
The evening sun sliding through the windows onto the dining table. The small girl laughing with her mother.
The client sitting down, despite all the resistance to doing so, and slowly setting intentions to guide himself through the rest of his life as I provide the most gentle of support.
The tree in the garden and the horse in the field.
All these moments, and more, perfect in their imperfection.
Everything was worth going through, for this. And this. And this.
The peace from that realisation, when I slow down and sit with it, is quite something. A sense that, for all the sadness and turmoil that would be caused by my death, for me, a sense of satisfaction would be present, too, in those moments.
It was worth it, for a moment like this.
I often think about the word Namaste. I loved the feeling of it and wanted to know what it meant. I looked it up 10 or more times, each time finding the google definition too boring to remember.
And then I heard a definition from Fred Kofman. Something like: 'I see the divine light as it shines through you.'
Then I remembered.
Ever since then, I have often centred myself on a commitment: 'I am a commitment to seeing the divine light as it shines.'
And yet so often I don't. So often these divine moments, for which all the difficulties were worth it, have passed me by. Countless thousands of them over the course of my few decades. Gone now, or maybe held in memory if I slow down to look for them.
And then, by hearing this story from this man, I am awoken to them again. In a new way, at a new level. The possibility and peaceful gratitude that emerges as I sit or stand, connected in some way to the people I love, noticing that this moment... this moment... for this moment, everything was worth it.
The magic of the human brain. That subconscious system that filters all the inputs into something that makes sense for us, something we can handle, switched on by Schmachtenberger's story to scan and highlight these moments of perfection.
Not all moments, I should say, do I feel are worth all the suffering. But some are. At those times when the truly meaningful things are happening. When connection is present. When I am able to slow enough to see the divine light shining.
So take a moment today. To think about this. To let it seep into your awareness. What if there are moments in your life, for which all the struggle and strife were worth it?
Give your self, your subconscious, the opportunity to begin to tune into those moments. See what your experience of that is like.
See if you can see the divine light as it shines through you, the people around you, and the world.
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This is the latest in a series of articles written using the 12-Minute Method: write for twelve minutes, proof read once with tiny edits and then post online.
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