This continuing journey, involving lots of feedback and corrections to stay on course, provides endless opportunities to take things as they come!
Spiritual teachers present and past all seem to recommend the same advice:
Stay present to what is happening right here, right now.
But what does it mean, really, to live “in the moment”? What does it mean to “stay present”? And why do all these teachers recommend this practice?
Our ego-minds like to spend time dwelling on the past and projecting all the so-called “bad things” that happened there into the future. That is to say, our ego-minds tend to focus on the past or the future, paying little if any attention to what is happening right here, right now.
What’s really interesting is when we focus on the past—particularly on those aspects that felt like loss to us—then we tend to end up feeling sad. On the other extreme, when we focus on the future—particularly by worrying about how things might not work out the way we want them too—then we tend to end up feeling fearful. This is not always true, of course; we can certainly remember things with fondness and joy, and we can certainly get excited about a new adventure that is about to start in our lives.
But, as Eckhart Tolle puts it, one thing seems to be certain: in the present moment, there are no real problems, challenges, or difficulties. Right here, right now, everything is okay. In fact, it’s just as it should be: perfect.
In this week’s episode, we shed some light on this idea and present some suggestions to help you live more in the moment.
Enjoy! (And please remember to leave a comment below!)