Be Free!

Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry – all forms of fear – are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.

Eckhart Tolle, “The Power of Now”

Imagine for a moment that all the problems in your life were suddenly eliminated. That would be such a relief, right? But the relief would not last unless you realized that it was your choice in the first place to suffer by not living in the present moment. It is our attachment to the past and future and our denial of the present moment that causes our suffering.

Problems don’t actually exist in the present moment. The problems we think we “have” are simply situations. If we become stuck in them, making them part of who we think we are, we cannot be happy. Happiness is only possible when we pay attention to what’s happening right now. We can look around and use all of our senses to be with whatever is there. We can see shapes and colors and textures. We can listen to the sounds and even be aware of the space between the sounds without judging them. We can touch something and connect with its beingness. Without thinking we can just sense everything in and around us.

The life situations we find ourselves caught up in are not truly our lives. They are produced by our minds in response to our past and the unknown future. They take us completely away from the present moment. Without judging ourselves, we can simply become aware of when we are allowing situations or problems to take up space in our sense of reality. We can hit the “pause” button, disconnect from the thoughts and focus instead on what is happening right now. We can bring our “presence” to the “present”.

Just for a few minutes right now become conscious of your breathing, noticing the rhythm, feeling the air pass in and out and feeling the energy in your body in response to it.

Think of it this way . . . In an emergency situation, you know that you are not dealing with a problem. You are dealing with something happening right now that needs to be responded to right now. The mind must stop and allow us to be totally present in the situation in order to respond. When we do that, extraordinary things can happen, like people lifting cars to free someone trapped beneath.

There is a freedom in simply “being”, so next time you think you might be stuck in your mind, just ask yourself, “Am I experiencing whatever the moment offers me right now?” If the answer is “no”, it’s likely that you have allowed time to take precedence over the present moment. You are not free. You are identifying with the past or the future, rather than giving your full attention to whatever is happening at the moment. At the same time, you must completely accept what is happening now, because you can’t give your full attention to something and at the same time, resist it.

A lot of people escape into the past or future because they cannot accept impermanence. They would prefer reliving the past, no matter how painful that might be, or imagine an unknown future, no matter how scary that might be, rather than accept that everything changes and they have little control over that reality. True freedom comes from accepting impermanence.