It's Time to Remember Who You Are - Be Present & Mindfulness
This week I found myself listening to a beautiful meditation called Time to Remember by meditation teacher Burgs, with soft music by composer Toni Castells. I pressed play, closed my eyes, and something in me softened. The title alone stayed with me all day. Time to remember.
Remember what, exactly?
I think many of us carry a quiet feeling that we have misplaced something. Not our keys or our glasses (although, yes, those too). Something deeper. Somewhere in the busyness of life, the rushing, the responsibilities, the hard seasons, we forgot the person underneath it all. The one who felt peace just watching the light move across a room. The one who knew what she wanted before the world told her what she should want.
Here is the good news. She did not leave. She was only covered up.
Mindfulness is a kind of remembering
Something I love: in the old Pali language of the Buddha's teachings, the word we translate as "mindfulness" is sati, and it carries the meaning of remembering. Not remembering the past, but remembering to come back. Back to this breath. Back to this moment. Back to yourself.
That changes how I see my practice. When my mind wanders during meditation (and it does, every single time), I am not failing. I am being given another chance to remember. Each return is the practice.
The sky behind the clouds
Burgs' album is called Endless Blue Skies, and that image is one of my favorites. Picture your true nature as a wide, open sky. Your worries, your fears, your to-do lists, your old stories about not being enough, those are clouds. Some days they are light and fluffy. Some days they are dark storm clouds that seem to fill everything.
But the clouds are never the sky. They pass through. The blue is always there, even on the grayest day.
When I forget this, I believe every cloud. I believe the worry that says something terrible is coming. I believe the voice that says I should be further along by now. When I remember, I can let the cloud be there without becoming the cloud.
Why we forget
Most of our stress lives outside the present moment. It is worry about tomorrow or regret about yesterday. It is fear dressed up as planning. And when we live there, in the past or the future, we lose touch with the only place peace can actually be found, which is right here.
So when I notice I am feeling tight, rushed, or heavy, I gently ask myself:
"Where am I right now? And what is blocking me from happiness and contentment?"
Often the answer is simple. I am living in a story that has not happened. Once I see that, I can come home to now.
Journal prompts for remembering
Take your journal, a warm cup of tea, and a quiet corner. Let yourself write without editing.
What did I love doing before life got so busy?
When do I feel most like myself?
Which "cloud" has been sitting over me lately? What would it feel like to let it drift?
What does my intuition already know that I have been afraid to act on?
If I truly remembered my own worth, what would I do differently this week?
Small ways to remember every day
Pause at the doorway. Each time you walk into a room, take one slow breath before you begin the next task.
Look up. Step outside and look at the sky for one minute. Let it remind you of your own open nature.
Set a gentle reminder. Put a note on your mirror or phone that simply says Remember.
Listen to something that softens you. A meditation, soft music, birdsong. Let it call you home.
Take one brave step. Remembering is not only about stillness. It is also about trusting yourself enough to act.
Coming home
You have not lost yourself. You have only forgotten for a little while, and that is so human. Every breath is an invitation to remember. Every pause is a doorway home.
If you would like company on this path, I would love for you to join my coaching membership. Each week we gather for live classes where we practice slowing down, letting the clouds pass, and remembering who we really are, together. You don't have to do this alone.
With love, and a wide blue sky,
Connie
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