Investing in the Present Moment

The best way to invest in the future is by investing in the present.

Everything that we’ve experienced has one thing in common; it all came before this moment. Every memory that we tap into moves the past into the present and moves the present into the future. Yet, what the past and future have in common is that they both do not exist, except in the placement of our attention outside of this present moment. It is only where we place our attention, filled with the energetic charge of emotional regret or hope, that creates a space that removes us from the only place where we can truly invest our energy. Our focus on the present moment releases us from the consequences of the false belief that we must experience distress as a result of choices we made this morning--or even, ten years ago--or the tension of planning what we hope is yet to come. The Buddha said, “If you want to know your past, look at your present. If you want to know your future, look at your present.” I assume that the Buddha knew a thing or two. 

What would happen if, for a moment, or two, we actually put down whatever we were doing, took a breath, and considered how it might feel if we chose to believe it was true that the present moment is where we reside, and that we are fully capable of peacefully accessing it, without the fear that we had to change, or do something about it, or create a new habit, or worry that we’ve wasted time? What would it feel like to simply stop--right now, this moment--and allow ourselves to feel what it’s like to reside in this present moment? With nothing to do. Nothing to accomplish. Nothing to fear. No choice to make. Nothing to do over. 

What does it feel like to take a breath and surrender to everything exactly as it is in this moment? To realize that this very moment is the same very moment that has always been. How deeply can you allow yourself to just let go and relax--sinking deep into your self and releasing anything other than peace?--just for this moment, so we can catch a glimpse of the experience, and know it. Knowing how something feels for a moment is enough to recognize it for a lifetime. That is choice. There is nothing to hang onto. Nothing to make up for. Nothing to forgive. The past has no bearing on the choice we have in the present. When the future arrives it will take place in the present. The best way to prepare for both is to stay anchored in this moment. Oscar Wilde said, “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken,” It could similarly be said that we should be in the present, because there is truly nowhere else to be.

(Un)comfort Zone

 Getting Out of Your (Un)comfort Zone

It’s hard to notice how comfortable we are with the habit of ourselves until we notice how excruciatingly uncomfortable it is when we are forced to step outside of our comfort zone. It’s so easy to be the ourselves we believe ourselves to be when we are in the habit of our daily lives, and it’s not until an unexpected twist or turn derails us into unknown territory that we notice how we had taken the routine of ourselves for granted. We all know that life is full of inevitable losses, yet we move through our daily lives in denial of this fact, and rightly so, as it is in the best interest of our health and survival to keep moving forward with acts of assigned meaning, rather then contemplating the losses inherently built into life itself. Plainly stated, we move through life with the delusion that tragedy is what happens to others. It is only when there is a crack in the illusion of safety in our own lives that we feel a panic which we desperately try to avoid. Perhaps it is the loss of a job, the end of a relationship, the death of a pet or parent, that shifts our perspective tectonically. We will do almost anything to avoid being uncomfortable by defaulting to taking the actions we’ve always taken, as we hope to claw our way back to some semblance of the self we thought we knew. When it becomes clear that we must move forward and through, it’s seductive to think that we can think our way to change, based on some big thought which we could label an epiphany, or an aha-moment of insight and clarity, or a realization. But what about action? Thought without action is philosophy, and although philosophy might lead us to understanding, will it lead us into a actionable state of knowing? It is only from a place of knowing that the inspiration and invitation for transformation can take hold. The tricky part comes after the moment of knowingness passes and we are left with a fading belief in the authenticity of our experience. It is in the contemplation of doubt when the brain automatically fires the old patterns of neural connections which want to re-establish the feelings that we label our identity. This is the moment of choice: do we take stock of the experience which granted us the ability to witness the reality of our own habitual making, and therefore make a conscious choice to take action towards retraining our behaviors based on the new information we’ve gleaned? Our habits are just our automatic reactions and repetitions from the first time we repeated an initial choice that made us feel safe. We’ve repeated the action blindly ever since, as if our very survival depended upon it. The comfort it brings gives us a sense of being who we are; the safety we feel by not taking risks which seem to threaten the survival of our self-proclaimed, familiar identity which is physiologically reinforced by a decreased cortisol level and an increase in endorphins, helping us feel as if we’ve avoided death itself. Let’s face it: change is big and scary and hard. In Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s 1960 book Psycho-cybertetics, he writes that “Our self-image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other.”

When was the last time you asked yourself if the choices you make are still relevant and appropriate to who you are now? It used to be said that it takes 21 days to form a new habit, but the European Journal of Social Psychology has recently published findings that it actually takes sixty-six days to form a new habit. There’s also the 21/90 rules that says you should commit to a new habit for 21 days and then, once established, continue to do it for another 90 days until it is the new automatic behavior. It is now well-known that the brain is capable of neuroplasticity so as to adapt and evolve. So, the two questions that may arise are: 

• How can I experience knowingness?

and…

• How do I go about creating new habits?

It is in the moments of stillness where knowingness resides. Being in nature can provide an environment in which our natural rhythm can breathe itself into being. It is easier to experience knowing than it is to take action based on moments of seeing behind the veil once we return to the habitual environments of our lives. Our job is to carry within us that which we’ve been gifted while outside-of-time, where the moment of now constantly resides.

Friction: The Abrasive Nature of Creativity

Einstein said; “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” I’ve never heard anybody say that they were seeking imagination yet we all seek knowledge in the form of information. We want to appear knowledgeable in our field of study. We want to be well-informed before making a decision; to have a sense of knowingness so as to mitigate risk, and therefore to avoid harm. And what is this harm we are so intent on trying to avoid? Is it the severe mental, and therefore physical, discomfort from being pulled out of the familiarity of what we know to the point of feeling overwhelmed. Panic, anxiety, and depression are the trinity of anti-change. They are the indicators that we are onto something; that we’ve tapped into a vein of significant meaning. Nothing new can be created from the familiar. We all seek a sense of contentment that seems so coveted yet elusive. It is from imagination that newness is born. Yet, it is in taking action that change is made manifest. And here is where life happens, or doesn’t. 

The radical act of creativity is not so much a bringing forth, but rather a destructive force that tears down everything we thought we knew so that something new can emerge from the remnants. The friction and tension that must take place within an individual to break free of the familiar is a staggeringly uncomfortable process of transition and transformation. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression, and that it is the world’s leading cause of disability. And, what is disability? Dis-ability. To shun the ability to take action. The internalized fear of change. To turn inward and remain stuck in the recurrence of self, with the knowledge that we’ve become paralyzed in the shame of not taking action to move in the direction of creation by letting go of the known and familiar. Let’s face it; change is scary. It is the re-creation of self, and the dismantling of that which we’d known ourselves to be. Then there is the shame born of the self-judgement of the disability, which only adds a further hinderance. 

One in thirteen people, worldwide (7.3%), suffers from anxiety, with the highest rates in the U.S. at 40 million people (18.1%). Can we agree that anxiety is a prolonged state of panic that can lead to depression and the inability to act? And that inability to act is the disconnect between our imagination envisioning a state of creation from where we are capable of becoming, and the falling back into the routine of the familiar. This state of impotence is where depression lies. So in the end, risk-avoidance offers a guaranteed pain in the suffering that comes with self-judgement, as opposed to boldly leaning in the direction of change. Hellen Keller said that “Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.” The friction that is inherent in the abrasive nature of creativity is the husk being torn from the corn. If we want to eat we must get under the skin.

What Do You Think?

We often become overwhelmed as we try to figure things out. It's not uncommon for life to hand each of us a challenge from time to time, and sometimes those challenges seem to be more than we can handle. Especially when we are tasked with making decisions that seem so monumental, and provide no guarantee of outcome, that our emotions cloud our ability to assess the situation clearly. Like many other times in our life, when asking for other's advice or opinions, we will ask them the same question that they will ask us: "What do you think?"

Let's step back a moment and acknowledge the inherent misconception of attention here. The question itself directs us away from where the answer we seek resides. This question is more appropriate for us to ask of others than for others to ask of us, which is where the lapse of awareness lies. The only answer that others actually can give us is to tell us what they think of our situation - and when they tell us what they think we should do, what they are telling us is what they would do; and even more correct is to say that they are telling us what they'd like to think they'd do if they were in our situation, based on who they think they are, not being in our situation. It's easy to get lost in the gap between who we are (if we wish to define who we are by what we choose), and who we'd like to think we are.

The more accurate acknowledgement would be to ask ourselves, or for others to ask us: What do you feel? And herein lies the conundrum; everybody else can tell us what they think we should do, or what they think they would do, but it is only us, and we, ourselves, alone, who feel the multitudes and layers of our conscious and un/subconscious thoughts which register as emotions and sensations in our body. The entirety of our existence is holographically imprinted in each of our cells and the most liberating, and terrifying, realization is that nobody else has our answer. So, that is in itself an excrutiatingly beautiful solitude. We are invited to put down the worry and asking-of-others so that we can relinquish ourselves into the personal space of solitude where the answers we seek are waiting to be found. It is a sobering realization that although we can often find resonance in the opinions of others when they reflect back to us what we already know but do not yet see, it is when we come to a place where we can, even briefly, recognize and acknowledge the divine moment of stillness within ourselves that we can invest our faith in the answers we find, with knowledge that the stillness within us resides in a timeless place which we are blessed enough to access and have pass through us, like a radio station signal picked up by the antenna of ourselves. The station is always broadcasting if we will only tune in.

One Breath Away...

It's easy to become overwhelmed with the voices of the many. A person can devote a lifetime to seeking an answer that comes from anywhere but within. Granted, it is an acknowledgement that resonates when we hear without what we recognize within, yet in seeking that mirror to reflect back what has been clouded out by our own disengagement from self, we seek workshops, therapy, lectures, books, classes, blogs, and the opinions of experts, to provide us with that which is quietly known all along. We are all just one breath away from turning the mirror inward to a terrifyingly solitary, yet clarifyingly liberating, place where we can sit calmly in nature, aligned with what we already know, being that if we simply embrace all there is, as it is, in this very moment, that there is nothing more to learn, no more running around to do, no other opinions to seek, and no validation necessary that will see us in the way we just need to see ourselves. We have already arrived if we will just allow ourselves to be here, now. Even for a moment. And that is all there is. This moment.

Although change so often feels like death itself to those of us who resist it, we need not relinquish everything we've been up until now in becoming some new, as-of-yet, not-fully-realized version of ourselves. Rather, who we've been will lay the foundation on which our renewed selves can build and thrive. Faith is the space between what was, what is, and what will be. Even if it all exists simultaneously, it is only where we place our attention and how we choose to breathe that will allow us to let go and truly relax into the now that we always are.

How might we feel if we just slowed down in this very moment, right now? What would happen if, for ten minutes, we just let go of thinking that we had to do anything more than just relax into our own being? Let's close our eyes as we breathe in and out through our nose. Let's simply drop our shoulders, relax our jaw, relax our hands and our toes. Let's soften our eyes. Let's just turn the mirror inward and calmly see what we see. In this lifetime of our existence let's dedicate these next ten minutes to just being still.

Who Are We?

We must always question what we believe so as to become more than who we think we are. This is not a comfortable proposition. We live in a culture where we are taught that we must know who we are if we are to be strong. The question becomes: How do we define who we are? We all have many feelings, thoughts, and emotions. We identify who we think we are mostly by how we feel. Our emotions are so strong that we create not only firm opinions about ourselves, the world, and our place in it, but we then create a personality and identity around those feelings based on beliefs we invest in which we defend at all costs. Our very personhood feels threatened when our beliefs are challenged, and we'll often panic rather than breath into the possibility that what we believe is a choice rather than a fact. More than feelings, thoughts, emotions, and even beliefs, it is worth considering that what defines us the most is actually the actions we take. We can learn a lot about ourselves when we witness how we go about making the decision to take action and, ultimately, it is the action itself that can reveal to us what we believe rather than what we think we believe, or what we'd like to think we believe. What would happen if we removed judgement from both the process and the outcome? Who are we when we are not being who we think we should be based on who we think we've been.

Let's take a moment now and just breathe as we let go of trying to figure out what we should do based on who we think we are. We will end up making whatever choices we eventually make, so the best choice we can make is to be here right now and just breathe into this very moment. That is the key that will unlock the door to ourselves.

Let's close our eyes and sit up comfortably. Breathing in and out through your nose, feel your belly expand and release. Let your jaw relax. Soften your eyes. Relax your scalp. Drop your shoulders. Relax your hands. For five minutes just breath and love yourself enough to be right here, right now. Everything else will take care of itself later if we take care of ourselves now.

Purpose

How can we align purpose with our intentions so that our actions move us forward in the direction of our vision? There is a distinction to be made between activity and action. Activity will endlessly fill time yet not necessarily lead us in the direction of making manifest the desired vision we hold which would bring us closer to the engaged sense of contentment we seek. Activity is action without intent. For the sake of efficiency and personal success, how can we identify the distinction between keeping busy, and moving the needle closer towards the life we want to live? If we can future-vision ourselves already living the life we want to live, then we can reverse engineer the steps that lead us there. With each choice we make we are either moving in the direction of our dreams or we are not. Movement is always happening, and it is our choice in which direction it takes place. When we are anxious or concerned that we are not where we should be we tend to make choices based in fear and comparison. What would happen if we calmed ourselves by turning inward towards our imagination and breath as we envisioned where we want our choices to lead us? If we can take a moment to infuse our actions with intention we will rediscover that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

Let's sit up straight and close our eyes as we spend five minute relaxing into our breathing while we envision how we wish to feel in the life we want to live. Let's experience that future feeling now so we will recognize it when we arrive there later. And in so doing, we will make the later now. Let's become familiar with who we already are instead of waiting another moment to become ourselves. We are who we are later, now. Just ask the acorn!