{"id":12388,"date":"2014-12-14T14:20:27","date_gmt":"2014-12-14T19:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tm.org\/blog\/?p=12388"},"modified":"2015-01-12T16:51:50","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T21:51:50","slug":"how-transcendental-meditation-helped-me-live-in-the-present-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/bloggers\/how-transcendental-meditation-helped-me-live-in-the-present-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"How Transcendental Meditation Helped Me Live In The Present Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

A soft flurry, like shredded tissue paper from God\u2019s hands, fell around me.<\/p>\n

I watched the three of them play, one snowball, another.<\/p>\n

Their laughter and smiles infectious as they struggled to stay upright on the damp grass.<\/p>\n

I stood at the top of the hill, a smile from ear to ear, as I watched my wife and kids play, and I wondered, \u201cHow many of these moments have I missed?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\r\n\t\t“And to think I\u2019m different because of 20 minutes twice a day. That\u2019s all I\u2019ve changed”\t<\/span>\r\n\tWhen I think about the selfish person I was a year ago (and I\u2019m not referring to suicide), I wonder about the times days like the snowballs and laughter happened, but I was too busy worrying about myself.<\/p>\n

I could have done more for my wife and kids; I see that now, but then, I couldn\u2019t see anything but my own ambition and ego.<\/p>\n

Ambition, which had led me astray, ego, which had nearly killed my marriage, but now that I\u2019m better and see who I was, I think about moments, small moments that I may have missed because I wasn\u2019t paying attention to the \u201cmoment.\u201d<\/p>\n

But one thing stands out among everything. The person I was missed some awesome things, things I\u2019ll never get back; but I\u2019m trying.<\/p>\n

I look at my children playing: my son tearing it up on video games, my daughter and her Palace Pets. I broke a promise to them; one I\u2019ve been working to repair.<\/p>\n

\t\r\n\t\t\u201c…one thing I\u2019ve noticed about TM…, I find myself more in love with my wife than I believe I\u2019ve ever been.\u201d\t<\/span>\r\n\tFor my wife, whose trust and love I often took for granted, I try to make new moments for us. Moments only we know about. Whether it\u2019s laughter about me acting out something that happened at work, or doing one of the numerous voices I\u2019m able to do, I\u2019ve begun to find myself in the ego I once held sacred.<\/p>\n

I look for ways to make up for the person I was, whether that\u2019s my son telling me about school, showing me the details of his new Lego collection, or my daughter explaining the intricacies of which Palace Pet belongs to which Disney Princess.<\/p>\n

I listen more to them now. My wife, I truly hear her. I don\u2019t judge her as I once did. I take notice of her more. And that\u2019s the one thing I\u2019ve noticed about TM and who I am now\u2026, I find myself more in love with my wife than I believe I\u2019ve ever been.<\/p>\n

I see the way she fixes her hair to try to hide the grey, and the way she looks at me as if I were an alien when I respond to a question in a way my former self wouldn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n

I see all these things about my family. <\/p>\n

And to think I\u2019m different because of 20 minutes twice a day. That\u2019s all I\u2019ve changed.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/br>\"\" On his blog, Brian writes, \u201cI\u2019m a Writer, dad, Transcendental Meditation practitioner and I have a day job on the Vegas Strip.\u201d If you have any questions or comments for Brian, you can leave them on his original blog post here<\/a>.
\n
\nOther posts from Brian:<\/p>\n

My First Experience with TM: Diving to the Source<\/a><\/p>\n

My First Experience With Transcendental Meditation, Pt. II: I Feel Alive Again<\/a><\/p>\n

My First Experience with Transcendental Meditation, Pt. III: Crawling from the Chasm of Doubt and Into the Calming Pool of TM<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The smallest things can make the biggest difference. Almost 9 months after learning the TM technique, Brian Baker reflects on the ways his life has changed. Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":12389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[228,29,295,22],"class_list":["post-12388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bloggers","tag-brian-baker","tag-experience","tag-meditation","tag-transcendental-meditation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12388"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12400,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12388\/revisions\/12400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}