"When driving your car, is your mind ever way out in front of your body? Do you tend to want to move faster than the rest of the traffic is moving and, if so, how does that make you feel? When you are stopped unexpectedly by a traffic jam, red light, or a train crossing, how does that make you feel? While waiting in line at the post office, grocery store, post office, and so on, and the line isn't moving at a pace that satisfies you, how does that that make you feel? Where is your mind in relationship to your body?"
-- "The Art of Uncertainty -- How to Live in the Mystery of Life and Love It"
How in touch with the "now" are you, right now? For many people, these emotional times of change are fear-driven, with an attachment to the future, focusing on how uncertain life tomorrow may be, or on the past when things were seemingly more "predictable." The reality is tomorrow has always been uncertain; perhaps we just weren't as obsessed with it as we are now. For many, there is quite an attachment to "the way it used to be." I refer to these attachments to the future and the past as "time bandits," because they rob us of our ability to be present and accounted for in the now, which is where true inner peace and power await us. It makes good sense to "glance" at the future and the past once in a while, if for no other purpose because it can serve as a good point of reference; however, we should not stare at it because it will suck us right out of the now.
As with all circumstances we meet with along the pathway on our journey through life, there are lessons we can learn from our current experience. It requires the ability to "freeze frame" our life, stand back and become a conscious observer of our own thoughts, feelings and actions, noticing where they are taking us. One might ask: What are some of the telltale signs that suggest I may have been overwhelmed by these time bandits? In "The Power of Now," Eckart Tolle writes: "To alert you that you have allowed yourself to be taken over by psychological time, you can use a simple criterion. Ask yourself: Is there any joy, ease, and lightness in what I am doing? If there isn't, then time is covering up the present moment, and life is perceived as a burden or a struggle."
It is by no coincidence that joy, ease and lightness are also three of the primary intrinsic qualities felt within by anyone who is consciously aware of spirit's presence. This, coupled with Tolle's statement makes a good case for the premise (and promise) that infinite intelligence is eternally a "now" presence. Think about it: God (or whatever name you choose to attach to that which is the "All" that is) is not known as the great "I was" or "I'm going to be"... it is the great "I Am." It becomes much easier to make the surrender to the now when we know that infinite presence (divine intelligence) is there to guide and support us. Sort of gives new meaning to the saying, "Let go and let God," doesn't it?
As a mindfulness practice consider the following:
- Become the conscious observer of your thoughts, feelings and actions today.
Enjoy the now, for the reality is that is all you have. All else comes and goes -- the present moment is the only window of opportunity you'll ever have to witness, appreciate and experience that which is doing the coming and going. Life in the moment is quite a show! Don't allow the time bandits to cheat you out of it.