The breath comes and goes. In breath, out breath. Again and again, throughout the day and night, throughout weeks and months and years, until you take your last breath. You don’t try to make the breath happen; it just happens on its own. There’s no need to try to control anything. The next breath will unfold without effort (assuming an absence of respiratory ailments.) Can you imagine your life flowing with the same quality of ease that your breath flows? Not trying to make it happen. Just allowing it to unfold.
Yet often people meet life with a huge amount of stress, spending hours ruminating over the past, or trying to control the future. To what end? The past has passed. As the old saying goes, forgiveness is giving up all hope of a better past. And the future cannot be fully controlled. People can only control their actions, but they cannot control their results.
So how to let life unfold with a sense of ease? An important step in this direction is to train your awareness to rest in the present moment. Rather than staying caught up in worries about the past, or anxieties about the future, see if you can continually direct your attention to the present. This can be done through all five senses. What do you see, hear, smell, feel, taste? Another great way to do this is through awareness of your breath. Take short breaks throughout the day and simply direct your attention to your breath moving in and out of your body. Your chest rising and falling. The coolness of the air as you breathe in. Its warmth as you breathe out. Resting your attention in the present doesn’t have to be complicated. It just takes intention. And remembering that you can rest your awareness in the present moment anytime, anywhere.