Jaclyn Beckerman Coaching

So as you know I’ve started my journey to travel around the world.  It’s been over a month and a half now and I’ve driven cross-country with a couple girlfriends, spent an incredible week at Burning Man, tasted my way through San Francisco along with what turned out to be a very close new friend, spent almost 2 weeks in LA at my sister Jen’s having more quality time with her than ever and loving it, and spent a few days in San Diego before heading back to LA to stay with Jen for another week.  Tomorrow I’m off to Austin, TX for 5 days for a friends wedding, then back in LA for 2 short days and then I fly to Peru on Oct 13.

It has all been absolutely amazing.

The biggest thing I’ve noticed while traveling is that it forces you to be in the moment.  There are always incredible things you’ve done in the past but they’re no longer happening.  (And if there was any drama or not-so-incredible incidents, those too are behind you).  There is an unbelievable abundance of amazing things to come but they’re not happening yet and it’s almost a little overwhelming (and scary) to think about them much as it’s such an enormous journey to take on.  This leaves me at ‘now’, the present moment, front and center.

This has been the most poignant lesson in the joy, satisfaction and contentment of being present.  Many great philosophers point to it.  Your fear, your worry, your anxiety, they’re all attached to either something that already happened or something you’re assuming, expecting or fearing will come.  None of that exists in the present moment because the present moment is based on nothing.  It just is as it is.

Being in the now allows for you to fully experience your life as it’s actually happening.  This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make plans for your life, goals and whatnot.  You should.  But within those goals, and within the markers you set for yourself within that, the opportunity is to relish ALL of it.  Not just look for what you perceive to be positive or the end point.

So many people are never satisfied with the process or with the progress they’re making.  Nothing is ever fast enough, big enough or good enough.  Or on the other end of the spectrum, it’s too fast, too overwhelming or too much to handle.  None of that is presence though.  It’s all based on either fears about the past or fears about the future, fears of your own capacity not being big enough or sufficient.

But you’ve already got everything you need.  You have the ability to BE anyone you want and to create anything you say because you’re that powerful.  You are no different than the Bill Gates or the Donald Trumps of the world because anything they’ve ever had the capacity for, so do you.  We all start out the same.  You may have different gifts or talents, but you can express and capitalize on them in the same way if you choose to.

But a truly rich life?  That comes from relishing every moment of it.  Experiencing it fully.  Every ounce of joy, every tear, every human interaction, every bit of anger expressed.  It’s ALL meant to be part of the experience or you wouldn’t be experiencing it.  One emotion isn’t better than another, they’re just emotions.

If you truly want to know where peace and happiness come from you have to look within.  It’s not from trying to avoid experiences you deem as negative or uncomfortable.  That is precisely where your pain stems from in the first place.  Content comes from embracing them.  Allowing and being with them.  Not trying to circumvent them or explaining life away as good or bad, but rather relishing it all.

Everything you’ve every wanted, the experience of life you’ve always wished for, exists in being in the present moment, embracing everything life already consists of.  What will you embrace today?