Imagining a Future Before It Has Happened
Life has a funny way of showing up sometimes..
I was browsing Steve Pavlina’s blog, and happened across an interesting article, that talks about how we can imagine things in the future, before they have even happened. And how that worry, and regret, for something that hasn’t occurred takes us out of the present moment, and takes away our opportunity to be able to live our lives free of fear, and emotional torture. I’ve re-posted the key part of his blog here:
“Do you ever regret the future before it has even happened?
When you regret, fear, or worry about the future, you project your consciousness beyond the present moment. Essentially you become unconscious because you lose awareness of the present moment, and consequently, you lose awareness of the real you, which exists only in the present. The future is something of an illusion because you never actually exist there. Past and future are merely memories and projections. Your real experiences occur only in the present.
When you live in the future, you experience suffering because to suffer is to be unconscious. When you can keep your full awareness in the present moment, there is no suffering, regardless of circumstances. Every moment feels perfect because you simply accept it. When you push your consciousness into the future, you resist the present moment, fighting what is and wishing it to be something else. The result is emotional pain.”
StevePavlina.com [http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/03/regretting-tomorrow/ March 31st 2006]
I can’t agree with him more..
My own personal experience of life, when living a tortured, and emotionally traumatic existence, tends to be entirely stuck in the past, or focussed on the future. It’s not something you consciously realise when you’re stuck in it. But the feelings and emotions you experience make it abundantly clear to you, just how deeply, and powerfully it’s affecting you. It’s kinda hard to disengage from the feelings, especially when you’re in such a place.
By contrast some of us live our everyday lives just a little disconnected from the present moment. Living a numb everyday existence, passing each day, with little or no true pleasure or joy. The easiest, and most wonderful way of living in each moment is to just BE.
Be here, in this present moment.
Look at where you are, right now, and what you have in your hands right now. Don’t look to what might be two or three hours from now, let alone two or three days from now. Each moment, when lived from the here and now is truly special, and magical.
It’s hard to remember exactly what happens in those moments; those moments when you lose track of time, when you get swept up in a task that is engaging, fulfilling, and rewarding once you complete the task. By contrast, those moments when we are so stuck, and trapped, that we just can’t wait to get out, and liberate ourselves from that present moment, always looking for a better future, or a better experience right now, those moments are when we get disconnected from reality, and get lost in our minds.
It’s when we don’t know what’s really happening, and we allow our thoughts to rule our present moment. Those demons, our thoughts, can play havoc on our minds. Especially when we identify ourselves with our thoughts.
Have you ever wondered, if you are your thoughts?
Try thinking something, and then paying attention to the something which had the thought. The two are very separate and distinct. It is not our thoughts that make and shape us, but rather us that can shape, and guide our thoughts.
Think enough, of the same thing, over and over again, and it becomes what you believe to be true. Nothing has changed, but your thinking. It is a hard and tough road, especially when we are trapped within our thoughts, and we can’t make sense of what’s really happening to us, but just feel dragged down, dis-empowered, and down-trodden. But rest assured, thinking of something different, or thinking in a different way, changes all that.
If you were to see a future, that wasn’t what you wanted to have in your life, and you were to ask the question, how might it become what I want it to be, then all of a sudden you’ve allowed your mind to start being open to possibilities that previously had been completely closed off, and instead of being caught up in the problems of the here and now, or being trapped in the reasons why something won’t work, you start to be open to imagining what might be possible.
You might have to stretch your imagination, and your beliefs about what’s possible, and what’s not.. But at the end of the day, it’s only when you start to think in a new direction, do you start to feel things differently, and you start to experience the joy, and wonders of living in a different way…
All of a sudden those emotions, of overwhelm, those trapping thoughts, and those daily monsters, that plague your mind start to recede, and you start to focus on ways of making it possible. Ways of being in life that are just a little different from the moment you were living in a moment ago. And all of a sudden, that critical question -
“How could this possibly become the way I want it to be??”
starts to shift your mind, and your focus, and your attention away from the thoughts of doom, and gloom, and as you start to entertain a new possibility, you start to create a new vision of the future.
Neither of these, is as real as the other, but the difference in what you feel, how you live, and what you respond to, changes dramatically. Try it. Take something in your life, that feels stuck, trapped, or unable, or incapable of changing, and see how things start shifting, once you start asking the question, how might it be possible for this to become what I want it to be??
Let me know what happens, if you try it.. Feel free to comment on the blog below..
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