This may seem like a bold statement to make. Don’t believe me – see for yourself.
Life HAS only ever and WILL only ever unfold in the present moment – the NOW.
Anything else is an illusion and comes from the pictures and voices in our head that are referenced from past experiences and or projected forward on the movie screen of our own mind to predict what might or should happen in the future.
Past and future are illusions – not solid or real even though past and future appear real because we bring the thinking to life on the movie screen of our mind. And then we feel our own thinking.
Can you physically go to the past? Or physically go to the future? Does some past or future thinking make you feel bad? Maybe sometimes it makes you feel better than what is happening NOW in front of you?
Let me give you an example, of feeling my own thinking that causes suffering.
I am travelling to Dunedin tomorrow. A picture comes to mind what my first client of the day will be like based on his name. Having never met him before, my mind makes up a picture of what he looks like. Then wonders if I will know how to help him. My mind wonders if I will measure up to his expectations. Maybe he won’t like me. And then I feel my own thinking as nervousness in my body.
Then I wake up to the fact that my mind has NO IDEA what will happen tomorrow! It actually doesn’t matter what he looks like, or whether I measure up. The essence of who I am (underneath the predictive voice in my head that feels real,) knows that I will show up, I will know in the moment what to do, I will do my best and that will be good enough.
End of story. No need to make up what might be and feel that suffering now – for what benefit???
Waking up to the story that my mind is making up is true freedom. The voice in my head is projecting the future based on past references, neither of which is happening right NOW.
I drop back to the present moment and notice what I am doing right NOW. I notice how to respond to the task at hand right NOW. My fingers on the key board. I notice the life in my arms, my bum on the chair, the ticking clock, the words flowing onto the screen and notice that right NOW there is no problem.
I wonder if you too, notice that when you are fully in the moment, you are connected with the task at hand, time seems to disappear, you connect with the person you are engaged with, you hear what they are saying, you are one with the present moment. And in the present moment there are no problems, there is no suffering. Suffering comes back as soon as we enter the mind again. The pictures and voice in our head brings the past or future seemingly alive, and we feel it.
Another example:
I had a tooth ache and was about to give a workshop. My mind gave me pictures of how badly the workshop was going to go because of the pain I would be in. Again I felt that thinking in my body and was dreading giving the talk. I delayed getting there.
Reality - I arrived and was warmly welcomed. I got into the passion I felt for the topic and engaged with the women present, sharing and answering questions.
2 hours passed and the workshop came to an end. I packed up and got into the car, noticing the toothache again for the first time in 2.5hours. What I saw from this experience is that when you are in flow, in the present moment, in the NOW, out of the mind, even pain disappears. During the workshop there was No thinking about it. When there is no thinking about it and what that thinking of the toothache means, there was no pain.
Worth musing on.
Jenny Malcolm
Mind & Body
Well Being Coach 20.4.22
