GETTING IN THE PRESENT
MOMENT
Can you accept this moment as it is? Get in the present moment and you have the key of mental health. Now is the most important moment of your life. By having fewer experiences, you will feel life more rewarding. The past moment is history. The future moment will someday be a moment.
Thinking pulls you away from the present moment. Set priorities and do the best you can, one at a time. Put your problems in the file cabinet. Spend more time living at a slower pace. Slowing down lets you live and enjoy the moment.
You will find a new way of thinking about your life and how you feel about your past. The future will be filled with optimism. You are always living the present moment. The question is: "Are you absent or present".
Pace yourself, and never do too much at a time. Set priorities, listen and reflect. You need very few activities when you are in the present moment.
The very thought of having nothing to do can cause you to panic. Your unconscious mind tires to fill every moment with some kind of activity. "Can you sit for two minutes without doing something?" Sitting quietly, you often get inspired and find solutions to important problems.
Each experience will be rewarding and satisfying because of the quality of thinking that you bring to it. You feel satisfied and life is just right.
Spend time listening, with no preset interpretations and no expectations. It's like listening to the symphony and not analyzing the melody or the instrumentation. Listening allows you to change your mind. It dose not cost anything and there is no downside.
There is wisdom in not knowing. Get into a problem, and you don't know what to do next. Just tap into your creative right brain and the answer will come. By being comfortable in not knowing, you can relax and know you are doing the best thing possible. Accept the fact that you don't know what is best. A wise man never knows. Admit when you are stumped.
Let go and the answer will come in. You remember something when it is no longer important. Focusing your mind on the past robs you of being receptive to new thought. Put your problems, timetables, facts, and solutions in the file cabinet until you need the answers. Problems occur when your present moments are filled up with thoughts of the future. See what is happening now and enjoy this moment and answers will spontaneously become clear. Never relive the past. Having regrets and feelings of resentment causes us to repeat the same errors and relive the old pains.
How you handle stress depends on your thinking at the present moment. Know in your heart that you can feel calm and peace. Don't keep trying to control the uncontrollable. You set certain conditions that must be met before you are happy. You are always looking for happiness, but you already have it inside yourself. Society says: "You must have certain things to be happy." When you get them, you need more and more things. We all want things we cannot have. Admit it would be nice to get the things we cannot have. Admit it would be nice to get the things you want but it is not the ultimate answer. Don't get caught up in details. There is no happiness outside of you. Look inside and you will find happiness.
When under stress, you either cope with it or try to change the conditions. Either way it's a battle. You always lose. The stress is in your thinking and perception of the situation. You try to manipulate and manage the situation. Whishing thins were different blow things out of proportion.
Thinking and feelings are the same. Thoughts have no power to hurt you. When you think about all the things you must do, pick one at a time. Nothing says you can't have a negative thought (like wanting a cigarette, or eating a big bowl of ice cream), but don't focus on this negative thought or desire. Instead of reacting to the negative thought, let go. Say to yourself "Ah, there is another negative thought!"When you are in the present moment, others touch you. You become connected by love. you develop appreciation of everything you have. You allow intimacy to grow in your family.
The busy mind prevents intimacy. Don't always rush off to be somewhere or to plan your next activity. Know that you have lost your cool when you feel like smoking, overeating, or over drinking. When you are anxious, irritable and troubled, take time for a vacation away from your analytical left-brain.
Will you wait for your death notice before you change? Your happiness does not depend on how your spouse is acting or how things are going at work. Get yourself into the creative right brain mode and then listen and speak from the heart.
Look back at your past as if you were watching the autobiography channel about your life as a child and a teenager.
Make no judgments. See your pleasant moments, your sad moments, your failures and your successes. What relationship did you have with your parents? Who hurt you? Were you lonely and unloved? Are you still carrying that anger? Is that why you need Joe Camel, Al Cohol, or Dolly Madison to comfort you? These feeling were reality to that child but it is not you know. Heal that child in you by reframing those events. See them as the adult you are, and they will let go. The result is as powerful as seeing a psychiatrist for twenty years of treatment. It's not real. It's only a memory. Everything that happened to you is only a memory. You have a life to lead. Get into the present moment and see that you really are and how lovely life is.
What about the future? Your 40lK, your early retirement! It's only a thought that hasn't happened. The present moment is the only real moment. It frees you from your past and your fears of the future. Keep your mind on the only real moment, NOW!
Can you accept this moment as it is? Don't anticipate how wonderful the next moment will be, or how painful the last moment was. This moment is unique. You have never had it before. And you will never have it again. Don't judge each moment as nice or bad. Accept each moment as it comes. Don't make a big deal of it.