Celebrate the Now and Acknowledge the Future

Every night before I go to bed, I enjoy a cup of Yogi "Restful Sleep" tea.  I love the flavour and relaxation that comes with this routine and also the fact that on the tea tag there is a little saying or thought, which reminds me of a fortune in a fortune cookie.  The other night, the tag read "Accept Who You Are Now, But Acknowledge Who You Wish To Become".  I read it a few times and each time I did I felt a deep pang of resonance.  In fact I ended up using that thought or idea to kick off the yoga class that I taught for my final weekend of training.

I decided that I would re-word the sentiment a bit, and change it to "Celebrate Who You Are Now, And Acknowledge Who You Wish To Become".  The updated version really hit home for me, as it summed up something that I have struggled with as I have moved through my life.  Perhaps it just comes down to semantics and how certain words land with us.  In the original sentence I felt like accepting who you are now was almost like a consolation prize...it felt to me like saying that who you are now was okay but who you were going to become was so much better or so much more.  That is the part that I have struggled with.  I feel like so often I have been too focused on the future version of me that I am working to become while losing sight of my present self and all of the accomplishments and awesomeness that exists right now.  Whether it be training for a race, working towards a certification or completion of another goal, I often find myself focused on the future me and ignoring all that has taken place to bring me to where I am RIGHT NOW.  And I realize how sad that is.  How by overlooking the work that has taken place already I am devaluing myself and the perseverance that has gotten me to where I am as I contemplate the next move.  

And there always has been a next move.  I know that one way I have numbed from pain or discomfort in the past has been to just stay busy.  If I am in constant motion and movement, I cannot see or notice the places where discomfort lies, because it is all a blur as I whiz past.  And the constant motion has often resulted in accomplishing things that have brought me positive reinforcement which has just made this practice of busyness more ingrained.  Truth be told, I was afraid of slowing down because I didn't know how to.  Now I find that although I can be drawn to activity for activity's sake, I am also much more able to notice when being busy is less about moving towards a goal and more about ignoring the work that is front of me in the present moment.

The reason I wanted to change Accept to Celebrate on that tag was because I feel like all too often we just don't take the time to celebrate who we are and where we are in the present moment.  It almost feels taboo to actually feel proud of who we are now without needing to offset that statement with a mention of the next thing we are going to do.  How many times have we diminished a goal we've achieved by tagging on afterwards a mention of the next one we are reaching for?  What if we just allowed ourselves to feel pride in what we have done and stop there for a moment?  How would that feel?  

I do like the idea of acknowledging who I want to become and where I want to head, as I feel that having a vision of where I am headed towards is helpful and also inspiring.  And appreciating can take place at the same time as I am celebrating who I am now, without taking away from it or reducing it to a phase or stage to be checked off a to-do list.  So as I move forward there will be more celebrating in the now while an appreciative glance to the future takes place, just to keep it all in perspective and to not miss out on all of the victories that happen along the way.

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