Lose Your Anxiety in the Holy Now

Anxiety is a signal you are sending to yourself: it may be wake-up call that you are not engaging with the present! You may hurry to do something that must be finished, or you may be afraid of something that is coming your way. You are elsewhere, but not in the here and now.

There are certainly different kind of anxieties. If feeling anxious is just a signal to get you work a little more intensive then it might even be a good thing. But there is also the paralyzingly kind of anxiety, the feeling of heaviness and tension that becomes chronic over time. It seems like you rarely have any peace of mind. When you reach that state it is a sign that harmful programs are working in the background. It could be an over-active mind, a general pessimistic mindset, or traumatic experiences of the past that haven't been worked through yet.

Try to remind yourself of the here and now. Perhaps you are experiencing that dreaded feeling again while you are working in the kitchen. You realize that just as you do the dishes your mind has again switched to the upcoming work project. That's ok, just use this realization to stay in the here and now. Feel the texture of the plates you have in hand, experience the temperature of the running water. Stay in the present, your project will take care of itself when you are work. Experience this revelation for yourself!

Aldous Huxley in his book "A Brave New World" came up with the notion that we all could have parrots next to us, screaming "here and now" all the time just to help us wake up to the moment again and again. This sounds like a nice idea but you can actually get to this state by yourself. Just make a habit of experiencing every activity fully, without allowing your mind to run programs in the background. If you fully engage you can quiet the voice in your head down. Try it!

Experience the holy now and see how happiness and peace return to you. It is as if a force is flowing through you and everything becomes effortless. You also realize that the world engages with you much more intensely than you ever perceived. This was always so, it was just before the voice in your head was too busy for you to notice. With this realization trust will soon develop that the projects of the future will be taken care of, just as mistakes of the past probably happened for a reason. Stay with the now and discover a new world open up - you have the Power of Now.

By Christian and Su Zhen