In the now, from lumber to luggage


Most people probably have heard of a story of a special event in which someone was capable of manifesting a power beyond human capacities – or they may have experienced this themselves. In an unexpected and extremely urgent situation they could take a leap they would not have thought to be possible. Such a leap is an outspoken example of what is possible when you are totally in the now.  With this I mean, that you let go of thinking of the past or the future. This means that your attention comes entirely into this moment, which enables your total reservoir of energy to become available to do what is necessary or desirable right now.
 
The expression “don’t worry about tomorrow” is already for ages referring to the fact that you are empowered most when you stay conscious of the present moment. Of course, we make plans for the future and we use our thinking to shape our plans.  There is however a difference in the quality of your plans and the action that comes along, when they rise out of your creative source ‘in the now’  in stead of emerging from continuous thinking where your mind travels frequently to past and future
In the now you have access to your inner well and you can feel a space which is not disturbed by puzzling about the past and worrying about the future .

Creativity and the implementation of creative plans demand a freshness – something new can only be born if there is space.  On behalf of the new, we are forced to let go of the old, or at least a part of it.  Therefore, you have to go  deeper inside yourself, where you are in touch with your being , in other words, with your essence that lives in the eternal now and which has the knowledge of a larger truth on creating , releasing and creating again. From this contact , you can release with greater ease everything that is no longer valid to you and you can feel and see that you are not a “product” of your experiences in the past. As human beings we are inclined , after many ages of evolution, to identify ourselves with our experiences, with what has happened in our life or with what will have to happen. As if you were the adding up of your experiences. Often, this makes it difficult to let go of old situations. But you are not your experiences.  As a being, you have experiences.

 

Living in the now means that you do not stay with your attention in the past continuously ( “do you realise all the things that happened to me….”) , because this means that an important part of your energy is imprisoned in that part of your mind that is constantly active in keeping alive your history, your drama, your story.  Of course, I do not mean that you have to wipe out your memory or that you deny what has happened. Surely, you had your ups and downs of joy and sadness in various experiences. Go and look for the essence, get the harvest out of them. What has it taught you, what awareness did you gain?  And if you have done so, let go of the lumber and continue your journey with the enriched luggage of a broader consciousness of life.
The same goes about thinking too much about the future. Puzzling … ‘what if’…. ‘imagine that…. where the mind and the connected emotions are in an anxious state.  To put it concretely: something can only really happen in the now. All other ‘events’, in what we call past or future, can only exist in our head.
You use your energy the most efficiently and effectively when you concentrate on what is happening right now. Since, naturally, you can also solve a problem only in the present.

Check for yourself, how often your thoughts are wandering to the past or the future. In doing so, you become the observer of your mental activity. By doing this systematically, you create a space around your thinking and you become free of the imprisonment of continuously repeating thinking patterns which have lost their value in the here and now already a long time ago and you will stop unnecessary worries about what could happen. By this space, you can feel better who you are in your essence.
From this lively essence that is truly you, you can make choices out of spontaneity, out of real enthusiasm, and you can consciously use the rich luggage that you have assembled with all your experiences. This is how you create a beautiful future in the now.


Ans Carels,  march 2006

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