Susan Biali

Home

The Time is Now

By Dr. Susan Biali

    It seems like everywhere I turn these days, someone’s telling me that to solve all my problems, I really need to get more into the “moment”. Eckhart Tolle, bestselling author of the book The Power of Now, points out that at any given moment, problems as we understand them literally cease to exist. If I recently had a fight with my boyfriend, that’s in the past. I may choose to think about it now, and it may upset me, but it’s not actually happening now. I might worry about earning enough money this year to make my mortgage payments, but that’s in the future. Right now, I have a roof over my head and have everything I need, so this moment is taking care of itself just fine. So will the next moment, and the next.

   Sounds nice, but if I just experienced the peace of every moment, and gave up worrying about the future and working to create the life I desire, how would I get anything done? I admit, I bring this up to take attention off the fact that I do, indeed, spend way too much time looking back at the past, and just as much time worrying about the future. I don’t think I’d be human, or a woman, if I didn’t.

   One aspect of this idea does really seem to work: someone told me once, and I’ve read it several times since, that when you’re upset, agitated, or worrying about something…get into the moment, instead. Instead of turning the problem or experience around and around in my mind, I catch myself and focus on something in my environment. That might mean looking around the room and really seeing it for the first time, or listening to the sound of passing traffic or the bird singing on a branch outside the window. I might do a quick body check, feel how I’m feeling, relax my grip on my pen. It’s amazing what a difference it makes, so much that it makes me think that there may really be something to this moment business.

   When you’re at work, talking to a co-worker or client, are you really there in the moment with them? When I work as a doctor, I’m usually in a lot of other places, most of which are several meters or even kilometers away. I frequently “visit” the waiting room, mentally, while I’m with a patient, wondering how many people are sitting there and if they’re getting restless. I dream about what’s waiting for me in the evening, maybe a long leisurely dinner with my man. I might count the days until my next flight south to Mexico. Or, I might count the minutes until I finish this pap test so I can get on with the next patient, or lunch.

   What would medicine be like if I focused on being in the moment, just doing what I’m doing now, and nothing else? Does fantasizing about my upcoming vacation actually make the patient visit go any faster? Probably not. Plus, if I’m distracted I’m probably less effective and less efficient. I also might find that I enjoy the job more, and my patients more, if I take the time to be one hundred percent present while I’m in the room.

   Have you had the experience of living in a beautiful place, and forgetting to actually see it? I’m looking at houses right now, and I told my realtor I only want to see places with views. Obviously, these are more expensive. “Why would you do that?” she asked. “Everyone knows that once you live in a house, you don’t really see the view anymore, it just becomes part of the furniture.”   Most places I’ve lived have had a view, and she’s right, you do stop seeing it after a while.

   I grew up in Vancouver, Canada, and have driven over the Lions Gate Bridge countless times. If you know it, it’s a spectacular view, with the mountains and inlet on your right and the curving coastline and open ocean to your left.   I would guess that easily seventy-five percent of the times I’ve driven over that bridge in my life, I haven’t seen it. I’m thinking about something that happened at work, or about what I’m going to do that night, or maybe I’m chatting on my cell phone. Thousands of tourists fly from around the world to enjoy and gawk at that view, and I don’t even notice it.

   Though I’ve been a skeptic about the practicality of the “now” movement, I do believe that paying attention to the moment you’re in can dramatically improve the quality of your life. Make the effort to be fully present for your patients, your family, and your friends when you’re with them. When you drive, or walk, or wake up in the morning, take the time to really see where you are. And if you paid big bucks for a home with a spectacular view…don’t let it become part of the furniture.

© Copyright Dr. Susan Biali 2007

Social Bookmarking & Networking tools:

Free social bookmarking plugins and extensions for Joomla! websites!

[ Back ]

Articles via RSS

Article samples

These articles are samples from Dr.Biali's extensive body of published work, which includes almost a hundred published articles on Health & Nutrition, in addition to many articles on the subject of Living Well.

Publication Credentials

Susan Biali's work and expert opinions have been featured in a long list of media across North America, including MSNBC, The Good Life Network, Fitness, Hello!, Today's Parent, Chatelaine Magazine, Saturday Night Magazine, The Medical Post, HEART Business Journal for Women, The Vancouver Sun, Just For Canadian Doctors Magazine, Wellness Options, and Alive Magazine.

Ask Dr.Biali

Got a question ?

Dr. Biali would love to hear from you !

Click here to ask

Articles via RSS

Article samples

Publication Credentials

Ask Dr.Biali

What I do

Prescription for Your Best Life

Free E-Newsletter!