It is very important to live in the now, for when you live in the now you are not worried about what can happen tomorrow and all of the issues of the past are no longer an issue. And it is only by living in the moment that you may embrace your true nature.
In your pursuit of life, you seek to have more joy, better friendships, better relationships. Many focus on health and spontaneity. Most want to be more successful and prosperous. In the process of all of this, it is important to set goals and focus on your future right? But in order to create a better future, you must be grounded in your current circumstances, so that you can take the best possible course of actions that will lead to a better future.
If you want to have better relationships and heal the wounding of the past, you have to be willing to let go of those experiences to come into the present moment and embrace a different experience. To move into a vibration of self and others, and move into appreciation and acceptance of the virtues and qualities that you are or have gained from the past experiences. And only in that way, do you let the past melt away, and be grounded for a better future.
Living in the Present
So, living in the moment, experiencing in the moment, is not only the only way to create healing from the past and better experiences for the future, but it is also the most powerful way. Look at the alternative…How effective is it to create change in your life if you are always reliving past painful and unhappy experiences (or even past glory days)? Talking about past events with friends and even new people reworking the old emotions again and again and again can eventually lead to an exhaustion of those emotions and thoughts for awhile, but they will resurface again later, and that is the best possibility for that scenario. A more likely case, is that reliving these events builds up so much emotional and mental energy that you recreate these patterns again with new people. Distracting you from making any real positive change in your life. It doesn’t matter if the experience is in the past or if it is a fear of an experience of the future that is the source of your attachment, because pain of the past and fear of the future are often very closely linked.
Symptoms You Are Not In The Now
The number one symptom that this is happening in your life is the constant mind chatter, the self-dialogue about everything that is going on around you. When you get to a place where you can reduce this mind clutter, it becomes easier and easier to move into the present. Think about it, when you are totally grounded and “in the zone” of the work that you are doing, there is no mind clutter. There is only expanded awareness of what you are doing. And as soon as you move out of the zone of your focused concentration and energy, then the mind chatter begins again. And any time that you can get into the zone, perhaps by working out, by being clearly focused on your experience with a friend or partner, or concentrate on your project, this concentration helps to alleviate attachments to the past and future fears.
Just Breathe
Additionally, anything you can do that brings in a greater sense of joy and peace supports this process. Without a doubt, the most powerful method for training your consciousness to live in the moment, is focused breathing and meditation. So, I encourage you to take time every day, start with five minutes. Work your way up to 15 minutes; if you can hit 20 minutes per day, that is when the biggest change occurs. Focus on your breath. Just breathe. Breathe long and full. Be aware of how the breath moves through the body. Be aware of the body’s response to the breath. The in-breath increases energy and vitality. The exhalation releases unsupportive energy, allowing you to gently and easily shift into the now. Your mind becomes quiet. And then your mind will realize it is quiet and will get noisy again. And when that happens, just relax and breathe again, and don’t worry about the noise. Judging yourself for the noise or for not becoming quiet, quickly is a way to create more noise. So, just breathe. If you can breathe like this, full deep breathes, 5 seconds in, 5 seconds out for 20 minutes a day, just focusing on your breath and your body’s reaction to the breath, at the end of 30 days you will experience a level of peace that you have never imagined. And this is just the beginning.
If you need a little help getting started on your first five minutes of deep breathing, you can use this free breathing exercise to guide you.
What a great post! I agree that too many of us tend to live in the past and fear the future. Yes, we want happiness, success, good health and love, but if we never live in the “now” how can we accomplish anything? We remain stagnant, afraid to move or impatient that things aren’t changing quickly enough so we give up.
Thank you for the excellent information!
Kelly