“Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it. It is all we ever have so we might as well work with it rather than struggling against it. We might as well make it our friend and teacher rather than our enemy.”
~ Pema Chodron
If there’s anything we have learned from the past few years, it’s that life is going to continue to provide us with challenges. Just when we think the storm has passed and we are ready to sail in optimal conditions, the weather seems to turn and keep us on our toes. The relentlessness of the continually changing weather and stormy skies can be overwhelming and exhausting. It’s understandable why we begin to check out, close our eyes and just want to wake up when it’s all over. This approach can offer us short-term peace by escaping the discomfort of what is. However, in the longer run, there are benefits in staying completely present in the storm as we learn acceptance and embrace the opportunity to grow from every experience.
The power of atha
The first word of Patanjali’s is “” or
