This Moment Is Ok

Simple wisdom for the terrible, no good, very bad days.

This moment is ok, and you are ok in this moment.

I had a strangely difficult (bad) day, one that did not strike me as interesting to comment on until I sat down to write about something else and knocked my bowl and all of its contents on the floor. I’d reached the last straw earlier in the day, so other than irritation toward sweeping up glass, my reaction was flat. Right, of course that happened, I thought, things have gotten worse and worse today. I hope it will change soon.

I have not always been so quick to accept reality, but it has become one of my strengths. My mind does not typically ruminate on trying to change the past: what is over is simply over; what is gone is simply gone. When experiencing a crisis of any kind, everything becomes easier to handle if I can arrive, in an honest way, at the conclusions that years of meditation have brought me to: it’s like this now. I am ok in this moment, and this moment is ok.

What’s hard about simple wisdom is not the theoretical possibility that such simple wisdom could be true: it is that it’s hard to actually implement such simple wisdom. While remembering that you are ok in this moment is generally good advice, it can be maddening to hear in the midst of something that feels very much not ok. Even so, this does not negate the truth of this statement, and such advice will very likely resonate with the part of you that is always calm—the part that is always connected to what is always ok.

It can feel almost radical to contemplate believing that everything is ok in this moment. Our neurotic minds and insecure selves want to qualify these kinds of statements to appear realistic and compassionate—or perhaps to acquiesce to our self-destructive tendencies: “but there’s so much suffering; but xyz is absolutely terrible; our country is doomed; I won’t be ok until they change, until this is different…” Everyone knows how to wax poetic about all the things that are wrong or bad in this world or in their lives.

But, as Michael Singer has said: “the truth is, everything will be okay when you are okay with everything. And that’s the only time everything will be okay.”

What would it mean if everything is ok? What would happen if you believed that you’re actually ok, in whatever mess you’re currently standing in? Chances are, if you are here in this moment, and you have the capacity to think about the concept of presence—or better still, to practice it—you are indeed ok. Allowing yourself to feel this could potentially make you feel better, and consequently make everything around you work more easily.

Ok, right now.

A while back, when I was the most achingly broken I have ever let myself be, I fastened myself to the phrases “it will be ok; you will be ok; you are ok right now. Things will get better and better.” These pieces of wisdom carried me, and now, in difficult moments or on bad days, remembering their truth comes more readily to me. I have seen that they are true—they have shown themselves to be true. It’s easier to believe that I am ok and that things will change and get better, because I actually know it.

Maybe this is how we all become more wise: by continuing to experiment with the lessons we learn through hardship and loss, and see if they stand the test of time. If things don’t feel ok right now, remember that this moment will pass. Remember that things must change.

Despite your resistance to this moment, this moment is like this, now, and it was always going to be. Things are ok, and so are you. Let this mindset lead your life; it may serve you better than worrying about the future or trying to change the past ever will.

Maggie