“Not Now.” A support for staying present.

~A reflection from my week-long meditation retreat in November~

This is the first of what will be several reflections I hope to share with you following the seven-day Meditation Retreat I just completed.  

I guess I can’t begin this reflection without first responding to the question - How was it?  

In less than 10 words….?

It was nothing short of amazing.

As background, I had the opportunity to be with a small group of meditators, led by my meditation teacher, in the National Park Islands in the Sea of Cortez.  For 7 days, we meditated and lived simply in the beauty of nature.  We got up at daybreak to watch the sunrise, we bathed in the water, ate by moonlight and each night camped under the stars. 

We observed silence, no social talking - only using our voices for logistical questions or practice discussions with our teacher. (The beauty of silence will be a reflection for another time, so stay tuned for that). .

It was, what I might consider, to be the best week of my life.  

I learned so much about myself, and my practice. I’m grateful to have had this experience to share just a bit of what was helpful for me.

This post is my reflection on “not now”....

For the first 5 days of the retreat, I was completely there.  After a few hours of shaking off the transition noise in my head, I was able to quickly ARRIVE and be 100% present for life on the island.   But on day 5, my mind started advancing to the future - how will I incorporate this practice into my life back at home?  How will I react to the stimulation of a busy life after 5 days of solitude?  In this environment, my heart is so open and vulnerable, how will I adjust?  I found myself getting anxious and “fighting” off those thoughts in meditation.  

I brought it up to my teacher and, as expected, he told me I would be equipped to deal with those questions in the future moment.  Now my practice was to keep my head where my feet are and he gave me the phrase he personally uses as those thoughts arise - gently saying to himself, “not now.”  

“Not now.”

Wow.  How can two words be so powerful?  That simple practice gave me a lot of space in the remaining two days to simply be where I was.

I now use that phrase when my mind moves ahead.  When I am intending to stay in the present but my mind is bringing me a future question, a plan, a thought, a worry.  

Yes, mind, I will get to that.  But Not Now.  

I simply and gently whisper that and bring my attention back to the aliveness of now.  And it’s not like the thought magically left never to be seen again (I wish). But I found it to be a really great support to bring me back to where my feet were.  

Now back in Ohio, I’m finding myself continuing this support.

• Not now (in my meditation) when I find myself planning.  

• Not now (in the shower) when I find myself thinking about my next step.  

• Not now (in the car at a stoplight) when I find myself reaching for my phone.  

Not now, my dear, stay right here.  

This was a simple, but profound, gift that I received that I hope may give each of you a bit of here-ness in your daily life.