I’m sitting with my little travel computer at a training, where I have some time just to hang out and want to write some experiments.  I’m in that kind of place where there are no ideas at this moment, and so am sitting with the flow of what actually is present.  And, what I find present is the question:  How is it for me when I am right here, right now, without having to make it be or do any particular thing?  Sometimes just dropping into the present moment as it is feels like a definite luxury and fills me with a relaxed, easy sensation.  Sometimes dropping into the present moment brings a feeling of tension or demand, and that’s definitely not relaxing or easy.  Right now, I find myself playing with curiosity, wondering what will emerge as each present moment becomes the next one.

And so, for this week’s experiment, I invite you to be aware of what happens for you when you encounter an unplanned moment, or a moment when you’d like to accomplish something, but you don’t have a real idea just yet of what to do to get to that goal.  Do you start to get tense and try to force things to move along?  If so, notice how your body responds and the quality of your thinking when you begin to press in on yourself or the situation to be other than it is in this moment.  Or, do you offer yourself the space and time to discover what emerges as you move through the present moment?  In this case, also notice your body and your thinking.  You’ll find that the quality of each is quite different in both of these situations. 

One of the benefits of tracking your body is that it can alert you to times when you’re moving into constriction or tension, even when you’re not consciously aware you’re doing so.  Also, your body can help you enhance moments of ease by allowing you to settle more thoroughly into comfortable sensations and enjoy them.

For example, when I initially engaged the present moment that existed quite a few moments ago now, and didn’t know what I would write for an experiment, I allowed space and time to offer me what emerged next.  I noticed that my body was fairly relaxed,   with just a bit of push from my wish to generate an experiment or two.  I allowed that little bit of push to invite me to begin to type and see what happened.  I began to write with curiosity about what would emerge and was prepared to hit “delete” and erase most of what I wrote.   As the process continued, I was surprised to discover that an experiment was, indeed, emerging. 

As with all the experiments, there aren’t any right ways to do this one, nor are there any right answers as to how to encounter the unplanned present moment.  Instead, there’s an opportunity to discover your automatic responses to these moments and then to decide if these responses are the ones you want.  For example, some of us inevitably encounter an unplanned moment with anxiety – we don’t know what we’ll do with the time.  For others of us, we encounter an unplanned moment with a list a mile long and immediately begin to feel pressure about how to fill it.  Still others of us meet the unplanned moment with a sense of delight that we have some “found time” and luxuriate in enjoying it.

Whatever your style of engaging the unplanned moment, remember that awareness brings choice, and that’s really what these experiments are all about:  giving us an opportunity to actually be present enough to make choices we know we’re making.  Be sure to bring curiosity along as your constant companion and, whatever you do when you encounter the unplanned moment, enjoy discovering what other options you may want to add to your response repertoire.