Being Present #46 ©
“The past is history, the future is a mystery, and this moment is a gift.
That is why this moment is called ‘the present’.”
As I’ve said before, the best way to shake your awareness into the present is to break your daily routines or habits to see how they change your perceptions. By simply trying something different – food, clothes, TV shows or an activity you’ve never done – your mindset alters, and you may even gain a whole new way of looking at your world. A few mistakes are good for a laugh or experience to entertain others, so don’t be afraid to shake yourself up a bit – even go radical! Laughter opens up more possibilities.
Do Not Ask, “Why did I do That?” When you ask “why” it takes you back into a loop of your own failures, to all the times in the Past when you did something like that, and all the emotions or judgments that went with it. ‘Why’ brings up all the stuff that you believe makes you do/say stupid things, like those adults in authority from your youth or childhood who would question so embarrassingly. This solidifies that limiting reality into your current experience or situation. Instead, ask how it came to your mind – was it your thought or someone’s suggestion? Was fun a point of its creation, or were you into challenging or testing yourself? We do want to eliminate the ‘should have, would have, or could have’ from becoming a part of our “future past.”
Exercise: The small trivials, rituals, necessary duties of everyday life have piled themselves up to such an extent that you cannot see beyond them; the old ‘can’t see the forest for the trees’ problem. We do forget who we really are, or want to be when we forget to put ourselves, our dreams, and heart desires in the forefront, or allow our soul destiny to be lost in the mundane. You need to free yourself so you may continue on your path to fulfill your journey of self discovery. It is time, if you haven’t done it before, to make a list of the “Twenty things that I would like to do or accomplish in the next twenty years.” Put a date on your list and title it as such. These can be places, people or things, and of course, no limitations. Write as much detail as you want, but no reason is necessary. Leave enough space so that as you go over the list you will begin to see ways of doing them that you may not have considered. Encourage close, like-minded friends to join you in their challenges, so you have a support group that can urge each other on, or giving ideas or connections for completion without competition. Keep this list to take satisfaction in those things you’ve crossed off as joyously done. There is rarely an astronaut, Olympic winner or other prized success that did not start off as a dream. Taking the highest point of perception is being positive and capable of handling whatever you need to change into a higher vibration. All is not chaos, but a balanced view – evolving like a moving target to set the intent of having a multi-dimensional life.
While Shakespeare said that “All the world’s a stage and we all play our parts in it . . . ,” many Spiritual philosophers believe that the big secret is that we created this game of life on Earth. We’re making it all up! And, we continue to create it every day. Also, that we have the power to make it the way we truly wish. Most of us are way too serious about making money, collecting material goods and being ‘king of the mountain,’ instead of having fun and playing the game without a concern of success or failure. None of us gets off this rock alive or with our toys, so why the big sweat? Being in the present also means enjoying each moment as it comes to you, not just letting it pass by waiting for the next big thing. Sometimes this is as good as it gets, for we may not be around for something that might be better. There is also the realization that what is great to one is not to another. We should not need multiple choices to appreciate what we have. But sometimes we do need to see what is out there, to have the gratitude for what has been given to us. It should not be our choice just because it has been someone else’s choice. Like the Sushi go-round – you wait too long to make your choice, it will be gone. Indecision is like clutter in your life, the reason you hung on to it is never known when you throw it away. Some things you get a second chance, and some you don’t.
If you can see it, hear it, feel it, taste it, touch it or smell it, in this moment, then it is of the present moment. You are not thinking or dreaming it into existence. It is actually here, now and so are you to experience it. Sometimes an anticipation is an intertwining of happiness and fear of the experience. When you begin to emerge yourself into the present moment, your outside thoughts may stop, and you may feel a deep silencing of peace filling your mind. As an inner door is opened, you are allowed to experience an infinite essence of your Being, your true nature. It gives you the opportunity of pure consciousness that is a dimension of you that exists in Oneness of who you are, and to become. This is very powerful, and as you learn to tap into this dimension, you will be given the information through your intuition of the direction for fulfillment of your Destiny.
Once you realized that if you keep playing the “re-runs” of the same old regrets over and over, you cannot possibly move forward. Holding on to decisions that you’d made when you were younger and less conscious are holding you back. These regrets were taking up room that could be filled with happiness, light, and situations that you want to bring into your life. Are you still marching to a different drummer, or has your music inside dried up and died? You need to have focused on forgiving and releasing your Past, and owning that all the decisions you’ve made have brought you to where you are now. You are the accumulation of it all, so even the missteps make you unique. You no longer create these same experiences again under the mistaken belief that you must do this in order to survive physically, emotionally, or economically. You are free.
Time and time again you have broken through old boundaries of thinking and feeling. Every time you felt suffocated in traditional structures and rules, knowing deep inside that your soul could not flourish in a fear dominated environment or relationship. You have felt the necessity to break free. It has been painful at times, to say goodbye and travel new roads alone. Yes, difficult and very heavy, but you had to stay true to your feeling that something wasn’t right, that it did not make sense to you. Adaptation is not an option when you know in your heart that something important is missing. While you could temporarily, or partly adapt yourself to an environment that didn’t truly resonate with you, even at the level of outer behavior it just doesn’t work. You have to eventually cross the inner valleys of self-doubt and loneliness, before you open up a new horizon where you truly fit. In other words, being in the present you cannot even fake it for a bit. Definitely, repressing or ignoring your problems is not possible anymore.
Tags: Being Present
