These three aspects seem to be so well delimited that it’s hard to believe they co-exist inside of us all the time. Even though yesterday seems to be over and that tomorrow is yet to come, we do think and behave now based on yesterday and tomorrow.
Wanna hear how this got into my mind now? No? I don’t care, I’ll tell you anyways. Yesterday me and my wife went to a store to buy Christmas stuff (for decorating our home and also some gifts). Surprisingly, we got hungry at some point. We went to a restaurant and we ordered a plate for Vikings (that’s the definition from the menu) and we are no Vikings. After a hour of fighting with the food, some of it had beaten us and we couldn’t eat it (I know! We’re horrible human beings for wasting food, but it was just a small piece!). When I woke up this morning, I was hungry and guess what? I thought about the food we haven’t eaten yesterday and I regretted it. So basically, I regretted today the food I wasn’t able to eat yesterday, and all of this because of my present hunger.
It seems that time, even though it is separated by… time, co-exists in any given moment in all individuals. They have an influence over us, our thoughts, our feelings and our behavior just because sometimes we cannot perceive the limit.
When was the last time you realized how your past and your future influences your behavior?
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When I “over-reacted” to some completely ignorable comment – that hit a raw and exposed nerve from my childhood – because if I didn’t “lose my s**t NOW”, this “abuse” could get repeated into the future!!!!!!
Well anyway, I soon realised that this is my unexplored, hidden and unhealed part from my past seeking resolution…. so instead of seeking to feel better, I worked to connect with myself from that past time (took a while, I’ll have to admit) and soon was able to not unconsciously catastrophise my “future” with anxious thoughts ….. after that, living in the present, enjoying the now, as pertaining to this particular issue, came quite simply
So once you let the past in the past, it freed your present (and your future), right?
I didn’t leave my past “in the past”
I just gave myself permission to feel that pain, that fear and that abandonment (because pain needs to be felt before it can be resolved)
I did this because I’d given myself permission to be vulnerable to myself
So I sat and felt the pain without judgement, distracting myself or trying to heal myself. I told myself that if this is as good as it gets and this is all I’ll ever feel, then that’s what I’m doing and I meant it
After many weeks of that pain expressing herself during meditation, making me unable to socialise, feeling very weak and lethargic …. after I had felt all of that pain, she just integrated back into my psyche, instead of being a fractured part, a jagged edge
This was a landmark moment for me, because my subconscious now realised that I could be trusted with unattended emotions and memories …. because I won’t run from them again
I’d won my trust
So I’ve sat with many many many painful memories and emotions and made them all part of my whole again
Inability to stay in the present is a great diagnostic tool – nothing more
If u cannot stay in the present, it’s because there’s an unhealed/unaddressed wound from our history, projecting her prophesy into our future (through our imagination) because the original wound doesn’t want to get bigger through new woundings – so we are gripped with unnamed fears and anxieties 🤷🏽♀️ or seek pleasure through fantasy
If we heal our past, one issue at a time, there’s no anxiety or gargantuan expectations for the future, and staying in the present is a natural by product
Inability to be in the present moment, is a symptom of an unhealed past, not a skill to be perfected
When we heal all our wounds, being in the present (without being anxious about the future or fantasising about some future excitement) will just be effortless
All the time, my friend, all the time.
How is that working for you?
Very well
It makes me content and grateful for all I have
Awesome! I’m really glad for that! 😀
Interestingly, one of the books I am reading ” The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle entertains thoughts of past present and future.
Nice! Which idea from that book caught your attention the most so far?
Yesterday, smacked in the face with the fact that some old survival skills need to retired as I have grown and am no longer in an environment that requires such survival skills.
Very interesting… how often does that happen (for your old survival skills to take control)?
I guess it depends on how chaotic my life is or affected by stuff beyond my control…..
The moment I could imagine myself in the future and the past I realised that they both live in the present.
Yes, they are… and I’m not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing…
What kachaiweb said. All there is is the present. Thinking about the past and future occurs in the present. Effects of the past occur in the present. Worries about the future manifest in the present. Now is all we have. Each second is gone as soon as the next starts. Each second…even smaller…snapshots of the present. Fascinating.