The Bigger Picture: Looking to access peace of mind, freedom and your full potential? There is one concept that comes up again and again in my work to bring these elements into my life, and the lives of others.
Not surprisingly, it also recurs as a theme in many spiritual teachings. It is the idea of "present time".
At first glance, this seems a simple concept: live life in the present; be free of past limitations and future anxieties.
Feel, cherish and enjoy every moment. In this way, life is meant to become a journey of wonder and learning, rather than an escape from fears or a rehearsal for some future aspiration.
And yet, investing in the present is something few of us do. Actually, most of us find being present in the moment surprisingly difficult.
Indeed, it has become so far from common that the general consensus seems to actively dismiss the idea as "airy-fairy", "new agey" and unrealistic.
And yet, it remains a really profound idea.
What else is life if not a series of moments? What kind of life do we have if we miss those moments? In truth, what really keeps us from paying attention to the present is an intense habit of lacking faith in ourselves.
Few of us feel in control of anything. Money is our greatest concern, and not just the entrapment of greed but the basic issues of attaining and maintaining accommodation.
For the first time in Ireland, we have created a generation where parents spend a third of their waking day in cars - commuting from their homes to their jobs, with creche and school runs thrown into the fray, desperately wishing they had more time with loved ones or even for themselves.
Although we often try to fool ourselves into thinking this was inevitable, the fact is that government policy has contributed to creating this set-up.
As such, we feel like pawns in our own lives with little power to change our lot.
Today, people's lives are busier and more stressful than ever. Adults seem to spend their lives chasing their tails, too busy with "important" business to offer our attention to the "little" things.
We think it's normal that, after a certain age, the years would start to fly past. We get older, and yet haven't even noticed the times of our lives passing by.
Each day just slips into the next. Months, seasons and years are gone before we know it.
No wonder few of us feel in control. And yet, whether we feel it or not, we retain the power to make changes in our lives that really matter to us.
Paying attention to present time - each minute of each day, as much as possible - makes an enormous difference to the quality of our life.
Stopping to notice where we are at any given moment gives us a new perspective - one that is more grounded in the truth about who we are and where we are.
Most importantly, it reminds us about how we want our lives to be and what is really important to us.
Making a decision to be in present time is the same as making a decision to come back to life.
It springs us out of the numbness and dreariness that is the habit of survival and into an awakened, alert, conscious state of being active in our own lives.
Try it now. Sit still. Notice the world around you. Don't make judgments or form opinions. Don't analyse anything. Just notice - sense the world around you.
Use your sight, smell and hearing. Observe your touch. Let yourself just be part of the scenario, with no need to fulfil a greater agenda.
This is both empowering and freeing.
When our attention is on present time, something greater happens. For a moment, we don't have to do anything extra to validate our existence. We have value. There is nothing to question about who we are and what we want.
The more we live in present time, the more this message gets through to us. Worries and anxieties about ourselves lift as we enjoy ourselves simply as one person - no greater or lesser - in a moment.
The fact is that few of us live our lives in line with what is most important to us.
To avoid feeling this, we put our attention everywhere else but the present.
When we decide to focus in on the moment, it becomes difficult not to change our lives for how we really want them - now!
Having said this, there is one thing that keeps most of us from embracing our present, and that is our past.
Letting go of the past has, as yet, eluded most of us. Yet, the tools for doing so are more simple and accessible than we imagine.
Indeed, they are natural to us as human beings, and built into our wiring. As such, I will explore them in next week's column.
•Shalini Sinha practises as a life coach and Bowen practitioner in her clinic, Forward Movement.