Do you ever have trouble living in the now? Living in the now can be hard, especially when you battle anxiety. Your brain constantly takes you back and pulls you forward. Rewinding to past mistakes and shoulda coulda wouldas. Fast forwarding to the anxiety-inducing unknown of the future. How does one simply stay present? Simply be here? Currently I’m reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (well I’ve started but it’s pretty dense and requires my full attention which I’m not great at giving). In the book, the author often speaks of living in and out of time with “time” being described as the past and future. The “present” is out of time. Possibly because when you’re truly living in the present moment you can not feel time passing. The last moment and the next moment do not exist, only the moment that is. How freeing. Yet it’s impossible to live your whole life in this state. For me, it feels impossible to do even for a few minutes. However, there are biblical principles that back up this “power of now” philosophy. Matthew 6:34 reminds us not to worry about tomorrow, “for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Isaiah 43:18 tells us “forget the former things, do not dwell on the past” (NIV). It seems God wants us to experience the “now” too. But why is it so difficult to do? How can we become better at fully accessing and taking up the present space we are in? Well, as someone whose mind is constantly racing against time or stuck backtracking, I’ve started asking myself these three questions to root myself in the present moment:
What are you feeling right now?
Anxiety has deep roots. It stems from emotions we haven’t dealt with in the past. Too often we don’t sit with our emotions and allow ourselves to feel them, even anxiety itself. Naming and claiming feelings I’m having without judging them, helps me feel more aware, more in charge of my emotional state, and better able to confront it. My response sounds something like “I feel sad right now and that’s ok. I’m entitled to feel this way and I will not hold it against myself.”
What is happening right now?
Asking myself this question forces me to take observation of what is going on right in front of me. It is a meditation technique that involves getting in touch with the senses. “What am I seeing, tasting, touching, smelling, hearing?” This provides a way to get outside of my feelings which are subjective and focus on the facts which are objective: “Here is a tree. The wind is blowing. My stomach is rumbling.”
What problem do you have right now and is it life-threatening?
This is a two-fold question. The first part comes directly from the Power of Now. When stressed out, the author invites us to ask ourselves, “What problem do you have right now?” He notes, most people find upon asking this question that there is no current problem. The problem lies either in the past or in the future. (He moves on to say there are no real problems. We make up problems in our mind. You’ll have to read the book to delve into that mind-blowing ideology.) The only real problems that exist in the present are life or death emergencies. Ironically in life-threatening situations, he proposes, we become fully present because of the way our brain is hardwired to induce the fight or flight response. We become hyper aware of our surroundings and in tune with the moment as a means to escape it. This is important for those with anxiety disorders. In those experiences when my brain and body are going haywire and feel like they are under attack, I ask “Is there any problem that is life-threatening to you right now?” Though it may feel like it, the short answer is, there isn’t.
Learning to live life in the now is powerful. All too often, we are so busy planning for a better future or dwelling on the bitter past that we miss the beauty of the moment right in front of us. That’s why they say the present is a gift.
It’s time to open it and enjoy it.
Credit:Handini_Atmodiwiryo
What are some methods you use to stay present and live in ‘the now”?
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