Life Can Be a Ray of Sunshine Even in Darkness with Lessons from Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle teaches about being present, non-judgement, acceptance, peace, joy, gratitude, and more. Today, I'm introducing The Power of Now: a Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, which fills me with peace and contentment. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose also warms my soul repeatedly. While I have read Power of Now and A New Earth multiple times each, Stillness Speaks is one that I optimistically started listening to very recently; I'm enjoying it so far! (all books shown below)

I spotted these darlings while staying very alert on a trail run this fall :)

Eckhart Tolle’s Power of Now: a Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment offers readers a practical path to inner peace, joy, and love by teaching the art of living fully in the present moment. Through Tolle’s guidance, you’ll learn to quiet your mind, let go of judgment, forgive, and experience a deep sense of connectedness, aliveness, alertness, and clarity. He teaches us to “resist nothing,” which captures the transformative approach to accepting life as it unfolds. Key benefits of reading this book include breaking free from negative thought patterns, accessing a timeless state of inner stillness, and awakening to the radiant joy of being. If you’re seeking lightness, grace, meaningfulness, and a powerful way to ease suffering, this inspiring path to a more peaceful life may be just right for you!

Here are a dozen Power of Now morsels that I especially enjoyed:

1. It's about saying YES to life! Accepting each situation (the Now) unconditionally, as though you had chosen it. Make the situation your friend, your ally. This has the power to miraculously change your whole life.

2. The more you are focused the traps of time, past and future, the more you miss the NOW. While memories and anticipation have value, they are only pale reflections of the light, power, and reality of the eternal present. Too much past causes guilt, regret, resentment, bitterness. Too much future causes unease, stress, worry, anxiety, fear.

3. Giving your full attention to the single step you are taking each moment (the NOW), enhances your mind, making you sharper and more focused, allowing space for creativity.

4. Conscious presence (the NOW) is the transformative agent that dissolves the past. Whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love, even the simplest action.

5. To complain is always non-acceptance of what IS.

6. Use anything "bad" that happens in your life for enlightening; don't give it any past or future.

7. If you are present, there is never any need to wait for anything. That time, like all moments, can/will be very enjoyable. You cannot be conscious and unhappy, or conscious and in negativity.

8. "Forgiveness of the present moment is even more important than forgiveness of the past; then there will be no accumulation of resentment that needs to be forgiven at a later time".

9. "Compassion is the awareness of a deep bond between yourself and all creatures".

10. "Let your peace flow into whatever you do, and you will be working on the levels of effect and cause simultaneously". Carry no resistance, hatred, negativity; "love your enemies" says Jesus, which of course means to have no enemies. Stay alert and very, very present; peace is your most precious gift to the world!

11. "Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to, rather than opposing, the flow of life". It is your crucifixion, let it become your resurrection and ascension!

12. Tolle refers to the "peace of God that passes all understanding". Although he doesn't cite the Bible, this is passage is Philippians 4:7. Microsoft Copilot says "This peace is described as transcending human comprehension, providing comfort and security to believers in Christ, guarding their hearts and minds against anxiety and turmoil. It signifies a profound sense of tranquility that comes from faith and trust in God, regardless of external circumstances".

Peace be with you!

Here is a previous post that relates to the present moment :)

Zone Out -- Harmful to You Happiness

In case you missed it, here is my previous post about Spirituality and Wellness:

God is SO Good

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment: Tolle, Eckhart

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (Oprah's Book Club, Selection 61): Eckhart Tolle

Stillness Speaks: Tolle, Eckhart

Va Va Voom -- Video on Vitality!

Click on the image below to hear about why you'll LOOK fabulous when you EAT right!

It's a GREAT LITTLE VIDEO straight from one physician who has done tons of first hand research on this stuff and written lots of great books, including one mentioned in the video called the Wrinkle Cure.

Note: video is nothing about business, even though it's on a "busienss" news show :) 

How awesome is it that by eating bright colored foods (that are grown!) you can look BEAUTIFUL AND HEAL your insides dramatically!?  Here is another post about Attractiveness and Veggies!

Dr Perricone mentions 4 specific foods in this video: watercress, CHIA seeds, cinnamon, and turmeric (you can click on turmeric or  CHIA seeds for other posts I've written!)

Nicholas Perricone has written many wonderful books about the HOWS and WHYS of this simple concept and I introduced him recently when talking of the BENEFITS OF GREEN TEA!  So you can read a bit more HERE!

Plus, check out Nicholas Perricone's Books!

COMMENTS: Did you think this guy was really calm?  I loved that about this video as much as all of his TOTALLY awesome information!  Watch again and see!  Are you a calm or excited person?  I am definitely an excited person, but I definitely see the value and benefit of calming down.  I enjoy BOTH calm and excited!  Some day I'll post about Eckart Tolle's A New Earth which has many beautiful life lessons that I love.  For one, I suppose he first introduced me to calm.  Have a great day!

Mindfulness Made Easy

Have you heard about this? Mindfulness, being "PRESENT", focused on NOW, conscious.

It is a concept, habit, WAY OF LIFE, that I have been trying to make more and more a part of my life for several years. It's about enjoying EACH MOMENT. ACCEPTING whatever comes your way, not wanting 'right now' to be more or less of whatever it is.

It can apply to many areas of your life.

• Patiently waiting for a green light when you are stopped.
• Doing one thing at a time.
• Noticing the many sounds and sights around you.
• Really taking time to notice pain, hunger, thirst, cold, heat, wind, sun.
• Acting with intention as much as possible (rather than being lost on 'autopilot').

Here are 3 specific EXAMPLES in my life:

EATING

• Taste each bite in your mouth.
• Take time to chew.
• Take breaks between bites.
• Not reading, watching, driving while eating.
• Taste, feel, smell, see your food, even hear the crunch!
• Eat a meal or snack without one sense (close your eyes) to heighten your other senses. You may find you eat less than usual, feeling satisfied sooner having really taken in all the sensory input of your food.

My sweet kindergartner said tonight, as she was slowly eating her single Starburst on the way to her swimming lesson, "I want to put 'SAVORING CANDY' or 'SAVORING CHOCOLATE CHIPS' on the Internet, so people can learn about it!" If nothing else, I am thrilled to have passed this on to her! I haven't even mastered the skill as well as her, AND I don’t think she will ever have to face an addiction to sweets, sugar, or carbs!

RUNNING/EXERCISING

You can run forever, taking ONE step at a time! Just think about what you are doing in this single moment, and you can do ANYTHING!

PARENTING

Take time to just BE with your kids, besides taking care of them, dressing, feeding, cleaning, teaching, and disciplining them.
Play with them, whatever they want to do, ACCEPT their ideas and plans, without doing anything else... no talking on the phone, checking email, folding laundry.
They really respond to this in an awesome way! They feel your LOVE and ATTENTION.

I love the following suggestion from my Kindergartner's religion book (God is Love by the Sisters of Notre Dame of Chardon, OH), which actually got the idea from another book (Raising Faith-Filled Kids by Tom McGrath):

“Here is a trick to help you increase your awareness. The next time you and your child are doing something as simple as picking up toys..., imagine yourself many years in the future looking back at this moment. From this vantage point, what seems important about this current moment? It probably isn’t the orderliness of the family room as much as it is the time spent with this precious child at this time in his or her life.

Life in a family can be busy and demanding. It’s also a time of miracles. Make it your spiritual goal to find ways to be mindful so that the busy-ness and demands don’t make you miss the miracles.”

Doing this more and more = more and more HAPPINESS, SATISFACTION, PEACE, AND CONTENTMENT in your life :)

The following are books that I love which I thought of right away when I considered my daughter’s lesson. Each discusses this concept from a slightly different angle and each is easy to understand and easy to apply. GREAT READS!

A New Earth by Eckart Tolle
Everyday Blessings: the Inner Work of Mindful Parenting by Myla and Jon Kabat-Zinn
Flow in Sports: the Keys to Optimal Experiences and Performances by Susan Jackson and Mihaly Csikszentmihaly
How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky
Peaceful Piggy Meditation by Kerry Lee MacLean (this one is a great one for teaching children all about mindfulness in a fun way!)

WHAT DO YOU THINK? TELL ME IN A COMMENT: Do you ever go on autopilot? Do you have any tricks to keep you alert and aware of the world around you?