The future is like a mirage. It’s a false representation of our own imagination in which nobody can predict. Why, then, are we so anxious about the things that are yet to come?
In Eleanor Roosevelt’s words: “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. “Life is now”!
In the bestselling piece, “The Power of Now”, Eckhart Tolle writes that “many people have a tormentor in their head that continuously attacks and punishes them and drains them of vital energy.” That tormentor just so happens to go by the name of anxiety. Like an inertia, this negative voice wields a force that resists the motion to move ahead with that great idea, or goal, or project. Tying your happiness to your expectations of the future, for example, “I would be happy if I could get a better paying job”, will have a way of depriving you of appreciating the little things that make the “NOW” fun and great. The result, Tolle writes, is “untold misery and unhappiness”.
Choose to be happy on your own terms and in this present moment. Stop anxiously expecting, and waiting, because this creates feelings of lack thereof. Operating from a place of lack causes you to energetically project the want and the need for something. Thus, no matter how much you accomplish, or acquire in life, you will never reach a place of satisfaction, or contentment because you'd always need more. This is the “Law of Attraction”.
So choose to be happy , now, in the present moment, and express gratitude for all that you have and what is yet to come because it takes you out of that energy of lack, or “‘not having”, and puts you in an energy of already having it. This is the energy of abundance, and “energy goes where energy flows”, so you’ll begin to attract more abundance into your life. If you continue walking, you will eventually make it down the road. So don’t worry about the what if’s, but instead take the first steps with perseverance and faith, and you're guaranteed to make it there.
So we’ve spoken about living in the future, but what about living in the past? What happens when your mind continuously replays the storyline of past, more than likely, hurtful events? Those negative thought patterns begin to manifest itself back into your reality, causing you to ultimately relive those same events. These are called karmic cycles. It’ll be different characters, sure, but it’ll be the same story line, take notice.
So, what mind strategies should we adopt to overcome the challenges of possessing the power of now? Start becoming consciously aware of your thought patterns and in the words of Ekhart Tolle, “realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life”. It’s our obsessions with the past and future that prevent us from giving our full attention to the present moment.