How to experience your 'Angala' moment

After two long years, I was so excited to go home to India for a family wedding. Zoroastrian weddings are not known to be as elaborate as the week-long North Indian functions, but this was a grand celebration spread over five days. The 2.5 hour flight seemed like eternity, but once we got there, those five days whizzed by in a flash. And I’m certain this feeling is all too familiar to you too.

It’s like preparing an omelette. You wash and chop the vegetables, beat the eggs, add salt and spices, heat the pan and cook. But when you sit to eat it, it’s over faster than you know. When we wait for something impatiently, time appears to elongate. And when we’re having fun, it accelerates.

The truth is, time is not linear as we understand it. So can the concept of time be fully realised and taught?

One of my favourite spiritual writers, Diane Cooper writes, “This is only because (impatient) ‘waiting’ is a third dimensional, low frequency quality. If you have a 10-minute wait for transport when you are cold, wet and miserable, it seems to drag interminably. If you are happy and it is sunny, that 10 minutes goes by in a flash. Happiness, love, peace, beauty and balance are some of the fifth dimensional qualities and when you are in one of these states, time appears to accelerate.”

To put it simply, there are two broad vibrations that we experience — a high vibration and a low vibration. Joy, gratitude, laughter, feeling grounded are all high vibes, and regret, jealousy, envy, shrinking yourself in any way are lower energies. Even if we aren’t necessarily in a low vibration, like we weren’t while waiting for the wedding, at the actual event, we were in a higher dimension, surrounded by love, laughter and cheer. So the time flew by on winged feet.

And when we are in this higher vibe, life simply flows with ease, grace and joy. At this level, everything is happening now in this moment, there is no past, no future. It is an eternal moment; the ‘Angala Moment’ as described by ancient healers. This is the state we must achieve more often.

Several thought leaders have spoken about the power of ‘now’, including 19th century philosopher Henry David Thoreau, who called it “the meeting of two eternities, the past and the future”. He said, “You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”

Our mind faces little resistance as we’re constantly tempted by experiences of the past and plans for the future. While there’s an importance in thinking forward, and learning from what has been, there’s also an importance in what is. The power is in the present moment. The Angala moment is where you can make your best decisions, enjoy your best experiences and the highest level of awareness. It is a muscle that we can build. So that we can come back to it whenever we feel unsettled.

How to experience your Angala moment:

1. Find a space where you can be quiet and undisturbed.

2. Close your eyes and centre yourself. This is the stage of shifting from thinking to sensing.

3. Tune in to the sounds around you, the sound of traffic in the background, people talking, phones ringing. And allow those sounds to exist, with no expectation or judgement.

4. Now tune in to sensations within. Your heartbeat, the rhythm of your breath, how your skin feels against your clothes.

5. Slowly scan your body bringing your attention to any pain or tension. Inhale into that area. Observe all sensations, pass no judgements.

6. This can be followed by deep breathing; gently breathe in for four counts, hold for seven and breathe out for eight. Repeat as you wish.

7. Give gratitude to the Prana (life force energy) flowing through your body, and gently open your eyes. Remember that this fleeting...

‘This’ fleeting moment is really all we have, and using it the best way possible is a gift, which is why we call it the present.

wknd@khaleejtimes.com

Connect with Delna Mistry Anand across social media @DelnaAnand

• Dubai