By Sue Woodward & Wendy Garrido

An Engage Aloud For Parents & Kids

This series of articles is inspired by one of this year’s most publicized books, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. This book asks each of us to awaken to our own consciousness and it speaks of the power of consciousness to transform the world. As each generation leaps ahead of the ideas, beliefs, and limitations of the past, we evolve as a species creating a new level of awareness. It’s our children who will lead us to a world of peace and compassion and it starts with helping them discover the truth of who they are. A New Earth asks us to stop living in our heads, with blame, fault, guilt, anger, sadness, prejudice and disharmony, and instead, asks us to tap into our consciousness, the truth that connects us all. Along the way, we discover our inner purpose and our inner gifts, and by doing so, we give others permission to do the same.

Every time you encounter a ∞ sign, be sure to give your child all the time s/he needs to think about the question and discover his/her own, unique answers.

LIFE
 

Let’s start out with a question. What do you think life is? ∞ Okay, you think life is _______________________. When do you think life happens? ∞ Let’s think of your time on earth, all that has happened to you, as your timeline. You might have seen a timeline in school, as it’s a popular way to visualize things or events that happen over a period of time. Let’s do yours!

On the next page is your life timeline (Timeline 1). What are some important dates to put on it? ∞ Maybe when you were born. What else? ∞ When you started walking. What else? ∞

Most of what you put on your timeline is from the past, things that have already happened. There are also lots of things that happened that you won’t put on your line. Why do you think that might be? ∞ Would you put “Oh, I remember. I scratched my elbow two years ago because a bug bit me,” on this time line? ∞ Why not? ∞“What does it take for something to be on this line? ∞ It has to matter to you, so you remember it easily. You probably don’t remember being born, but that was your entry into the physical world and your birthday becomes an important day to you and your parents as you celebrate each year. Significance, or how much something affects you, helps filter all the events of your life and determines the past that you think about.

Let’s zoom in to today, from this morning to your bedtime (Timeline 2). We are looking for smaller amounts of time, and since today just happened, we can remember more details. What did you have for breakfast on the first Thursday of last month? ∞ Hard to remember unless you eat the same thing every single day! But, what did you have for breakfast this morning! ∞ You can probably remember what you thought or talked about at breakfast today, but not last month!
 

Were there any “big” events that happened already today? ∞ Can you remember a lot of “little” things you did today? ∞ All the things you remember doing you could put on your timeline, but they are all in the past too. In fact, if you just heard or read that last sentence, it’s already in the past! Oops, it happened again!
 

So, let’s zoom in even closer! What were you doing an hour ago? ∞ NOW, closer.
 

What were you doing a minute ago? ∞ What are you doing right NOW? ∞
 

Everything lies in three places, the Past – NOW – Future. So zoom in to where right NOW is on this line and place your finger on the NOW. If it’s 1:00PM you might put your finger there. Would your finger stay still or does it always keep moving? ∞ It is always moving! Everything that happened before NOW is the past and it’s over. Oops! There went another NOW again! That last questionis just a memory in the NOW.
 

So, let’s move beyond the NOW. That is the future and it hasn’t happened yet. Put your right finger on the timeline where this morning would be. Then, keep your left finger on NOW. Then, put your left pinky finger on the past--and don’t forget to keep that NOW arrow moving while your pinky is on the past and your finger is still pointed to the future! Wow! That’s not easy!! NOW gets hard to keep track of when part of you is focused on the past and another part of you is worrying about the future. You are all over the place! And, that’s what happens to us.

NOW
 

Do you remember what part of time is always moving? ∞ Past? Future? NOW?
 

The NOW is always moving because it is where life happens. In each breath you take, life is there. When you laugh, talk, dance, meditate, sing, paint, play, or learn, life is right there in the NOW, and only in the NOW! Your NOW moves right along with you, wherever you go, whatever you think, whatever you do. Life only exists in that moment of NOW.

So if you wanted to focus on just one of these, the past, the future, or the NOW, which do think is the best place to put your energy?∞ Go back and put your finger on the NOW of the timeline, and, of course, keep it moving. It’s so much easier when you focus on the NOW and don’t worry about the past or the future. Try it. Put your finger on the NOW. Tell me what’s happening NOW? ∞
 

So the NOW is life and in that NOW is the power of life. It’s the only time you have control over what happens. Can you go back and change the past? ∞ So why do we spend so much time thinking about it or wishing we could? Is there a memory of yours from this week or from some other time in your life that you keep thinking about even though it’s in the past? ∞ When you think about it, how does it make you feel? ∞ It is over and done with yet how you think about the past still affects your NOW. Can you think of something that happened that made you feel sad in the past month? ∞ It’s in the past but if you still feel sad, your memories and thoughts are taking over your NOW! They are robbing you of your power! And, they do the same thing to adults. Can you think of a time your mom or dad carried their sadness or anger around? ∞ How about a friend? ∞ Does it make us feel any better? ∞

If your Mom got angry when you came home from school, what could she do to stop carrying that anger around? ∞ You might tell her you are sorry it happened and remind her that it’s not happening NOW! It’s over, in the past. Life is only in the NOW, and it passes right by if you forget to connect with it. The best thing we can do is to connect with each NOW moment and tap into the power that exists. New ideas, creativity, peace, love, abundance – all exist in the NOW.
 

If you can stay in the NOW moment, you feel better! A feeling is there for a purpose--to make you pay attention to something. So pay attention and move through that feeling to the NOW. Sometimes our brains hold onto strong reactions as a way of protecting us. But you have the power to do things to clean up your brain. Try laughing a big, big laugh six times a day, especially when you have a repeating negative emotion. Or, try yawning. Yawning helps us let go of this brain-made stress and reroute our thoughts. How about mediation, prayer, yoga, dance, music…how do you think these would help? ∞ When you put your focus or attention into the NOW, you clear your thoughts and connect with everything that exists. The NOW is always here, waiting for your attention.
 

TRUST

Did you know that everything is moving? Pick up a ball and hold it really still. Even if you place it on the table it is still moving. What makes it move? ∞ The rotation of the earth is always creating movement, but we hardly ever notice it. We notice that the sun changes position, and the shadows move throughout the day, but the sun goes so slowly across the sky during the day it’s hard to notice the change minute-to-minute. But what happens when the sun sets? ∞ Suddenly you can actually see how fast the earth is turning. Why do you think that is? ∞ The sun is moving all day long, through an infinite number of “NOW” moments, but it is only at the beginning or end of the day, when we can see it compared to the horizon, or edge of the earth, that we become aware of the speed.

Sometimes people only appreciate the NOW near the beginning or end of life. Unless you focus on the NOW in every moment of your life, it flies by before you notice it. The NOW is always moving, and even though you don’t know what will happen in the future, you can trust that when it becomes the NOW, you will be able to deal with it.
 

In the NOW of life is the world of possibilities. That is where your creativity lies, where your thoughts connect with all the possibilities and where we discover the energy of life. If you stay focused on things from the past, you are not in the NOW. If you live in sadness or anger you cut yourself off from the NOW energy. Stop resisting what happened, and get in the NOW.
 

Can you feel your life, your breath, your heart beat? How can you let go of the past or future and tune in to the NOW? ∞ Close your eyes and take three deep breaths and just listen to your breathing. Let all the air out slowly and feel the life energy coming in and flowing out. Do you feel goose bumps as you take those breaths? ∞ Try it again. NOW close your eyes and find your heartbeat. Use your first two fingers and put them on the side of your neck, right next to your throat. Can you feel your heart beating? ∞ In each beat is life. In that heartbeat and in each breath is the NOW. You can always bring your attention to the NOW with your NOW fingers... feeling your heartbeat. NOW is life.
 

Let’s stay in the NOW and discover what you might find here. The first thing you might notice is that your thoughts are more focused. You are narrowing your concentration or focus to NOW, instead of the past and future. When you were listening to your breathing you probably weren’t thinking about what happened earlier today! You begin to focus and get closer to the NOW. Thoughts might keep trying to slip into your mind to pull your attention away from being in the NOW, but the more you practice, the easier it gets.
 

Do you have any thoughts that keep trying to take you out of the NOW and into the past or the future? ∞ Take your three deep breaths again. Do those thoughts make you feel sad, frustrated, worried or angry? ∞
 

Feelings are reactions that happen between an experience and you. Some kids might see a boat and jump in it, feeling great, ready to sail. Another kid might see a boat and feel scared, because he is afraid of being in the water. Maybe something happened when he was young. Things don’t affect everyone the same way. And, no one is right or wrong! How they feel makes sense to them based on their experiences.
 

Your feelings are a reflection of all the experiences in your past that have somehow become strong enough set our body and memory off! If you had a bad experience on a boat, the brain goes, “A boat! A boat was very scary and you were afraid.” These are the reactions you had then, and when you hear or see a boat, your body remembers that. It brings that past memory into the NOW because it is trying to keep you safe. But in the NOW, these messages are just stored memories that pull us off track, and actually keep us from life which only exists in the NOW. You don’t have to be protected from life, you have to live it! Each moment.
 

Did you know that when an athlete lays down and imagines running a race, her body reacts as if she really did! The brain doesn’t know the difference between things that are real and thoughts. Whether it’s happening NOW or you’re just thinking about it NOW, your body reacts the same way.
 

Your feelings are important. What you do with the feelings is what brings the power of NOW to your life. In that moment, you can decide what you want to do next, and next, and next. Do you want to let a feeling go, do you want to do something to change that feeling or do you just want to carry it around? ∞ The NOW is filled with the power of your choices and no one else can make the choices for you. This week try noticing the NOW and making a choice about how you want to create your life. Life is alive, vibrant, a point in time where you can interact and connect with the power that exists that you may not see, but it is there. And, just like gravity, you can trust that you can count on it, and use it to make your life what you want.
 

Next month, we’ll go looking for where happiness lives!

June 2008