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
Showing posts with label Aldous Huxley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aldous Huxley. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Friday, January 4, 2013
The Present of Now
There is a force in you that is always eyeing the next
opportunity, the next thing to say, the next person to hang out with instead of
the one you are actually talking to. You are often not present at that holy
moment now. For your anxiety-driven mind, it seems that there is always
something more important than the activity or the person you are dealing with
right now. With this endless restlessness, you never truly live in the moment
because your mind is always somewhere else but here.
In life we get so easily lost, so we try to escape into alternative scenarios and fantasies. It is a vicious cycle, the more we are lost in life, the more restless and anxious we become, the more we are annoyed by the present situation and so more intensely do we aim to escape instead. Also, the more anxious we are, the less we feel inclined to do the activities that are spiritually meaningful to us, like meditation, writing, or going on nature walks. When we feel pressure, the voice in our head that wants to be in every situation but the one we are currently in goes into overdrive. We are literally fighting with a phantom in our head and the more we render control to him, the more exhausted and distracted we are going to be in the end. When our soul is sidelined by the voice in our head, we can not really see what other people need; we also cannot do what the holy situation demands of us. Because we are literally not there, we can also not really connect with the people we are with.
You may have read Eckhart Tolle's book that put him on the map in the spiritual community, The Power of Now. The irony was, when he wanted to publish his book he was first told that his idea was an old one. Well, lucky for us that he reminded us nevertheless of the Power of Now, in the same vein as we remind you today. There is nothing really you can do when you find that you are "there" in your mind instead of "here". All you can do is to realize for yourself, "Oh, I am thinking about my response instead of really listening to what my friend wants to tell me."
Aldous Huxley presented an idea that we could all live on an island surrounded by trained parrots who say " here" and " now" every 30 seconds to continuously remind us not to be sucked in by the voice in our head. Well, I venture to say that our voice in our head would even get used to that distraction. No, there is only one proven method to live in the now and that is to get sucked in by life. When we are way too engaged with what life demands of us, the " voice" in our head is simply to occupied to start a journey on its own. There is only one way to be in the presence always and that is when you learn for yourself that the now has a present for you in hand, no matter what. If you unwrap the Tao's present here and now with the same intensity as a child unwraps her gift on Christmas, then you know that you command the Power of Now. But please don't take it from us, please try this concept out for yourself.
By Christian and Su Zhen
In life we get so easily lost, so we try to escape into alternative scenarios and fantasies. It is a vicious cycle, the more we are lost in life, the more restless and anxious we become, the more we are annoyed by the present situation and so more intensely do we aim to escape instead. Also, the more anxious we are, the less we feel inclined to do the activities that are spiritually meaningful to us, like meditation, writing, or going on nature walks. When we feel pressure, the voice in our head that wants to be in every situation but the one we are currently in goes into overdrive. We are literally fighting with a phantom in our head and the more we render control to him, the more exhausted and distracted we are going to be in the end. When our soul is sidelined by the voice in our head, we can not really see what other people need; we also cannot do what the holy situation demands of us. Because we are literally not there, we can also not really connect with the people we are with.
You may have read Eckhart Tolle's book that put him on the map in the spiritual community, The Power of Now. The irony was, when he wanted to publish his book he was first told that his idea was an old one. Well, lucky for us that he reminded us nevertheless of the Power of Now, in the same vein as we remind you today. There is nothing really you can do when you find that you are "there" in your mind instead of "here". All you can do is to realize for yourself, "Oh, I am thinking about my response instead of really listening to what my friend wants to tell me."
Aldous Huxley presented an idea that we could all live on an island surrounded by trained parrots who say " here" and " now" every 30 seconds to continuously remind us not to be sucked in by the voice in our head. Well, I venture to say that our voice in our head would even get used to that distraction. No, there is only one proven method to live in the now and that is to get sucked in by life. When we are way too engaged with what life demands of us, the " voice" in our head is simply to occupied to start a journey on its own. There is only one way to be in the presence always and that is when you learn for yourself that the now has a present for you in hand, no matter what. If you unwrap the Tao's present here and now with the same intensity as a child unwraps her gift on Christmas, then you know that you command the Power of Now. But please don't take it from us, please try this concept out for yourself.
By Christian and Su Zhen
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