It is often difficult to see what Now is about unless something dramatic catches our attention. This is an open invitation for the voice of Ego to speak up and make itself useful once again by deciding for us what we should or shouldn't be doing right now. Let's look at some ways to improve and stabilize our free Awareness.

The first step is to fully relax into a state of presence, and take in all you see, hear, smell, touch and feel. This allows us to fully inhabit an otherwise ordinary moment, which begins to make it feel expansive. The spider web at the kitchen window looks magical. There is an explicable feeling of concern for a grocery clerk. We hear a subtle tone of voice in a phone conversation that alerts us that the caller is annoyed.

Next, notice whether your awareness feels fluid, moving with ease. Be mindful lest the always-trying-to- be-helpful Ego tries to slip in a command that you leave the flow and do its bidding. It screeches, "It's been three - days and you haven't called Marilyn back!" while Now is about watching a family of quails descend on the bird feeder. Ego thinks it can slip this past Awareness, because at our house, quails are referred to as Dan and Marilyn.

A heart check is always in order. Are our hearts open? Is it leading us through the day? With an open heart, we experience everything with wonder and appreciation, valuing all the experiences we are passing through because they all feel fresh and new even when they are painful or challenging.

Now, to the more elusive part. What to do right now? Ego, of course, wants to cram our day full of "productive activities," multi-tasking for extra points. But let's relax and wait until we feel moved from within. What catches our attention and moves us toward engaging it? Is there a feeling of interest in engaging the activity? If cleaning out a desk drawer attracted immediate attention, notice how there is a natural movement afterward to write that article that is due on Tuesday, the opposite of Ego's priorities. And notice the feeling of being congruent with what's going on in the flow. Opening the drawer and finding what we need right away is a small pleasure, and the article practically wrote itself.

Finally, let's try to recognize those moments when Awareness wants to simply be at rest. A sense of oneness with everything leaves us with an incredible sense of well-being, and a sense of wonder at what it is to be alive.