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This blog is for all you Awesome Readers who wish to journey along with me, discovering Zen Living Simply...Living from the Heart!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Precious Present

This summer I had an amazingly refreshing vacation.  My children and I experienced a Slow pace of living in a mountain chalet.  Taking in the vast beautiful views of the mountains, listening to the crickets and frogs at night, and enjoying the "precious present" was priceless. 

In addition to the fun tourist activities, we enjoyed quiet times of reflection. 

Some of our past vacation experiences have been fun-filled but exhausting, going from theme park to theme park, continuously rushing.  This vacation in the mountains incorporated some slowing down, being aware, and enjoying the present moment. 

Today I read the awesome book, "The Precious Present" by Spencer Johnson, MD. I look forward to sharing it with my kids; it is a very short, easy read.  I encourage you to share the story with others. 

Enjoying the present--not being in the past, not jumping out to the future--but being fully present, is a key to happiness.  Especially as our lives get even more busy with the onset of the school year, it is important to carve out "vacation time" for yourself and your kids.  With or without children in the home, fall brings holiday activities that seem to speed up our lives and can decrease our awareness of the "precious present". 

Incorporating "vacation time" activities in daily life can promote our awareness of the "precious present".    Some ideas:

** An Electronic-Free Day--no television, computers, gaming devices, ipods, etc
  
** Have dinner as a picnic on a blanket in your back yard--or your living room floor.

** Simply appreciating nature, wherever you live--the beach, mountains, a local park, lake, indoor plants/herb garden.

** A day of natural light, without electricity.  As darkness falls use flashlights and candles to enjoy an evening of fun with kids...or a relaxing bubble bath by candlelight for yourself.

** Work on a soul collage: cut out pictures from magazines that appeal to you, arrange and glue on poster board, utilize stickers, glitter glue, ribbon, etc. Write a Title on the back along with the date.  See the official website for Soul Collage for more details.

** Journal writing, Gratitude List, Arts and crafts projects for kids.

What other ideas do you, Awesome Readers, have for incorporating "vacation time" activities into our daily lives?  Or we can call them "time out" activities--time out from the mindless busy-ness of our lives, time out from the "rat race" that can consume our time.   Time out to appreciate the  "Precious Present"!!



1 comment:

  1. wow, you blog is really good, i enjoyed reading it and liked it...

    ReplyDelete