Sam Glory Not living in the present is often just another coping mechanism of our minds to distract us from how we really feel inside, another form of escapism choreographed by our ego mind. The constant obsession of what is going to happen to us in our future or longingly thinking back at the times we were young and single takes us out of the moment that we are in now and disables us from being the conductor of our reality; we instantly lose awareness of our being. The distraction of thinking ourselves elsewhere makes us miss the point of creation that we solely can acquire in the moment.
Many live their entire lives without being fully committed to the present and do not even notice, but the truth is that there is pain and fear in wanting to escape. There is hurt in being in the now and wishing to be elsewhere, and fear in looking at tomorrow and forgetting that tomorrow is being shaped by how you think and feel today. Looking forward to something that is meant to happen in the future creates expectations that are rooted in your ego and driven by either desire or anxiety; when you become controlled by your expectations, you start living a contingent life that creates pressure and keeps your happiness captive to a future that is not yet defined. Your focus becomes shifted towards the illusion of tomorrow where your well-being is explicated in the context of an envisaged future, thus instantly disempowering you from the you that is the creator of the now. When you were experiencing anything in your past, you were experiencing it in the Now. In the future, any event in your life will be experienced in the Now as well. So you see, you will always be exclusively in the Now; there is no other real place for you to be. Looking for your identity in your past is no more foolish than staring at the future and asking it for an assurance to be saved. The irony, however, falls back on the ego, because in the present moment, however large our issues seem to be, there is often no pain to be found. In the present moment, right now, nothing is wrong in your existence except for the thought that there is. Think about this one for a moment. Let’s take Max for instance. When he got fired and went home to sulk, in the precise moment he was sitting on his couch with a piña colada bawling his eyes out, nothing was actually wrong, not in that moment anyway. He was not in physical pain, he wasn’t hungry or thirsty, or cold. His wife was beside him and they were watching Mrs. Fletcher solving one of her murder cases. What allowed Max to feel pain, however, was the choice to allow his mind to redirect its attention onto something that had already happened in the past, and project fear into the tomorrow, therefore allowing full identification with the ego Self. Since the quality of your present thoughts are the ones that create your future, can you guess for how long Max was out of a job? Tip: Applying the elastic Balloon of Now. The Balloon of Now is a visualization tool to keep your mind focused on the moment at hand. The exact moment you feel your mind start to drift towards a desired situation (the future or the past), imagine a huge restrictive circle of energy encircling your head and pulling it closer to itself, thus minimizing the spillage of your thoughts. Try and do this in conjunction with asking yourself the right questions—there is a reason to why you want to escape from the moment. Sam Glory offers a fresh new voice in the generation of books about spiritual self-development. A writer, spiritual teacher and author of the spiritual manual I'll Meet you at the Lost and Found, Sam is passionate about presenting accessible spirituality and personal freedom through profound insights from the Inner Self, to help the reader of today live a fulfilled life from the context of a higher self-awareness. Sam's work is based in London, UK. I'll Meet you at the Lost and Found is being published by O Books. ISBN: 978-1-78904-030-2 (Paperback) £10.99 $16.95 |
Copyright © 1998 - 2024 Mystic Living Today All rights, including copyright, in the content of these Mystic Living Today web pages are owned or controlled for these purposes by Planet Starz, Inc. Terms of Service Disclaimer and Legal Information For questions or comment, contact Starzcast@mysticlivingtoday.com. Reproduction of this page in any form is not allowed without permission of the author and the owner of this site. All material on this web site, including text, photographs, graphics, code and/or software, are protected by international copyright and trademark laws. Unauthorized use is not permitted. You may not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit or distribute, in any manner, the material on this web site. Unless permissions is granted. If you have any questions or problems regarding this site, please e-mail Webmaster. Web site design by: Creative Net FX |