Crafting Your Future with Integrity and Hope

Embrace the present moment and discover its profound beauty in this thought-provoking episode. Join us as we delve into the importance of mindfulness, gratitude, and living in the now. Our host shares personal reflections from South Florida mornings, emphasizing how our cherished memories often highlight moments we may overlook in real-time.

Key takeaways include:
- The power of appreciating each moment before it becomes a memory.
- Balancing future aspirations with present awareness for a fulfilling life.
- Insights on navigating life's unpredictability with grace and acceptance.

Tune in to explore how embracing 'now' can transform your outlook on life. Don't miss out—listen today!

Good morning. I hope this podcast finds you well and healthy and moving in a positive direction in your life. Has some thoughts this morning. I'm coming from you way early in the morning again from South Florida in the United States. Still dark outside.

Today is Sunday morning, and I'm on the way to church. I kind of right now in my life, on a side note, other than being a mental health therapist, I'm over kind of a pastor over a flock of young single adults. And I just get up early. I love to go to church super early in the morning when nobody is around and just sit there and ponder and think, think about the day, kind of plan the day. Anyway, this is my favorite favorite time of the day.

Most people I talk to about that think I'm kinda crazy. I'm getting up so early, but I don't know. We're out. Our all of our clocks are a little bit different, our internal clocks. But what I've been thinking about, what I wanna share this morning is yesterday, I, so our iPhones are amazing.

Right? They can be used for such great things, and then also some negative things if we're not super, super careful and mindful. But I was going to the photos. It's like the pictures that we can take on our phone are literally like a journal. And so I scanned, and we're living here in in South Florida.

We're close to one of my daughters, 3 grandchildren. They're so fun to be around. And they run to see you even even if they haven't seen you in today. They run up and give you a hug, and it's the very first thing when they come in, especially one of my granddaughters, she goes and gives grandma a hug, comes give me a hug. That's the very first thing she does.

And before she leaves, does exactly the same thing. Says I love you. I love you. Man, there's nothing better than that. But as I was scrolling through the pictures of the past 4 years, it it it's, what am I trying to say?

It's like as and I've read and I've pondered. It's like we're we we seem to be always trying to get to the next moment as if the next moment is better than the one right in front of us right now. And, yeah, we we always gotta be striving, pursuing something. I truly have come to believe that unless we have a goal, something we're working towards, and we do have hope of a better future, life almost becomes unmanageable. So, yes, we have to have those things we're pursuing.

But at the same time, if you don't slow down just a little bit, you can't take in fully what's right in front of you. You kinda get dissociated a little bit. And I noticed that in myself as I'm looking looking at some of the pictures, and I'm as I'm looking back at them, I'm going, man, those are the greatest times in my life. That was a great moment. That was a great moment.

That was a great moment. Whether I'm swimming with the kids or, the grandkids, whether I'm on a walk with my wife, my and taking my dog. But the what I noticed is that it almost seems like I'm happier reminiscing about what was than actually feeling that way in the present moment. Does that make sense? I wasn't really super happy when I was going on a walk a particular night.

I wasn't really grounded. I wasn't really appreciating the beauty and majesty of each moment and how precious each moment is, and how quickly life can change. I was watching, you know, a little bit of a football game yesterday, one of their the big guys, 300 pound guy, one of one of their the big guys, 300 pound guy, just 3 or 4 minutes into the game, twist his ankle and his knee. Poof. He's done.

Most likely his career over. Got a call yesterday from a mom of one of the young single adults that that that I'm over. Kind of a pastor over. And she says and she's out her daughter's out here on a scholarship in South Florida to play volleyball. And she's in mom's in Utah, and she texts and goes, oh, we need your help.

My daughter's at a volleyball game. She popped her ankle and twisted her knee. She's torn her meniscus before, and we're, and she says it's the same thing. She can't straighten out her knee. I'm trying to I'm getting on a plane right now to get out there.

And then a little later, she went to the hospital, was X-ray. Yep. Ankle's broken, and they have to get an MRI on the knee on Monday. But do you see one moment? And this young lady, wonderful young lady texted me last week, and she says, I was in the middle of a game, and I was and it was a tight game, and we were struggling, and I said a prayer.

And I and I I was trying to connect with God to help me perform to the best that I possibly could. And and she says, and and it was amazing. It worked. I feel my prayer was answered. It's so it's so cool to feel that god is involved in my life.

And then that happened, and then poof. And then in a moment, it's part of this life has to deal with the ups and downs and the oppositions. And if you play sports, this stuff just happens. I don't think God caused it to happen. It's just one of those things that happen.

We can and some things we simply don't have answers to. So now we're in the present moment dealing dealing with that. Trying to help her and trying to, you know, encourage her. And now she's gotta figure out, well, what do I do now? If my knee really is torn, it's a a knee I've torn before, am I even ever gonna be able to play again?

And here she is just a freshman in college, her whole career ahead of her. And especially if you're playing sports and the knee is not working well, that's not that's that's really a challenge. So that's gonna take her on a whole another course in life. So what I'm saying is let's just be more mindful and hold this moment, this precious moment, the best that you can. Be grateful.

Let's all be grateful for what we have. Everything's working right now. Right? For for you know, if your eyes are both working, that's great. You can hear.

That's great. You can smell, taste, both. All our fingers are working. You don't appreciate even, one of your 10 fingers until one of them's hurt. Right?

When's the last time you were grateful for your fingers and the amazing things they do? Or your toes or your or any part of your body? The only time I think the miracle of everything is that things work so seamlessly as they do. That's the miracle of of the human body. And let's pause, look at those who are in our lives right now, and just maybe for a day, slow down a little bit.

Learn what it's like to be present with somebody. Slow down and trying always to get to the next moment as if it's gonna be better than this moment. I do love, a statement in the book, the power of now by Eckhart Tolle. Yeah. I'm not sure I'm gonna quote it perfectly from memory, but he's he says this, which is really profound, something like this.

Says, why is now the most important thing? Because it's the only thing that ever really is. If you really think about it, there was never a time when it's not now. See, only in the now can we ever do anything. In the now is when we can think and plan for our future.

In the now is when we can be focused on the past. And one of the key components to overcoming our past is to acknowledge it. We've got to be able to process through some of the some of the challenging things, some of the traumas we've experienced in life. They must have their just due, and therapy can help with that. EMDR therapy can help with that and other forms of therapy.

But then we must be able to look into the future and say the best is yet to come. There is something even better coming. And when we can cling to that thought and that idea and start to dream again for those who have have been hurt and have have kind of lost hope. See, we cannot this this is my perspective, from a spiritual perspective, we cannot cease to exist. I truly believe that when we leave this life, which every single one of us will, we all no one gets out of this experience alive.

None of us. It truly is my feeling. There is something greater than this. There's a purpose behind all this. There's a meaning for our lives.

We are here to try to focus on honor and integrity, learning to keep our word, learning learning the difference between right and wrong. I truly believe there's something to that. And as we constantly search within our hearts, we'll be guided and directed in those paths. We just instinctively know some things feel good and some things feel inappropriate. Pay attention to that.

Let that guide you. Let that lead you in your life. There are so many voices in the world. There's a huge movement now here in America to totally disregard anyone's actions in in the sense of don't judge me. Don't judge me for this, that, and the other.

And, yeah, we're not and we're not supposed to critically judge other people, but there are certain things that we we do have to judge. There are certain things that are right and wrong. There just are. And if if this is my perspective. And if we try to avoid that, it will only hurt us.

Search your own heart. You know the difference between right and wrong. Try to align your behaviors with with what you believe is right. But back to the main focus of of my thoughts around this morning's podcast. Let's try to be more mindful and aware of the precious moment that we have because things can change so quickly.

Just like me looking at all the past pictures in of the of of of my life here in South Florida, the last 4 plus years, they have gone so fast. And some of those pictures, I look back on them, and it was like, those were the most beautiful times in my life. And yet when I was in those moments, I didn't really fully appreciate that. So I'm trying to learn from that even right now, being grateful for just what's in front of me and trying to make the most of it and especially as it relates to our relationships with other people. That's the most important thing.

Anyway, it's just some thoughts to ponder. I, hope you have an amazing day. Make this the best day. It's like, this is the best day you'll ever have. And then just kind of use that as a template for every day.

Today is the best day, and tomorrow's even gonna be better. Anyway, you have a fantastic day and make the most of it and love those around you.