About Time

The tears are falling down my face, not pouring, just drizzling gently. And yet I feel a warm glow in my stomach and the beginnings of a smile creeping onto my lips. The words are really resonating. I am feeling a somewhat moved.

“And so he told me his secret formula for happiness. Part one of the two part plan was that I should just get on with ordinary life, living it day by day, like anyone else.

But then came part two of Dad’s plan. He told me to live every day again almost exactly the same. The first time with all the tensions and worries that stop us noticing how sweet the world can be, but the second time noticing.”

In, About Time, Tim Lake discovers he can travel back in time and change what happens and has happened in his life. Throughout the movie he plays with time and revisits the same event to hone the outcome he wants.

And finally at the end of the movie, Tim says, “And in the end, I think I’ve learned the final lesson from my travels in time; and I’ve even gone one step further than my father did: The truth is I now don’t travel back at all, not even for the day, I just try to live every day as if I’ve deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it, as if it was the full final day of my extraordinary, ordinary life.”

I am curious about how we might be able to do this; to be really present and appreciative of the here and now.

I have noticed how often I, and indeed other people I connect with, spend time worrying about what happened in the past and planning what will happen in the future, and not really being present in the moment. I can miss whole days in this state if I don’t pay attention to myself and my thinking. Does this sound familiar to you?

Through years of observing and modelling horse behaviour I have discovered that horses are experts at living in the moment. Their brains are configured in such a way that they don’t post rationalise situations or spend hours planning and scenario building. If we want to connect and engage with a horse, we must make that connection moment by moment. Consequently many of the attendees on our Horses for Courses® programmes report how powerful (and often unfamiliar) an experience it is to be fully present and totally attentive to another being.

And being with horses is not the only way to practice being present with yourself and your experience, there are other things you can do too.

How might you take the time to notice and appreciate your extraordinary, ordinary life?