Today’s article was written by Change Coach Suzie Yeulett
Your whole life is lived in the present moment.
Your memories are just thoughts, carried through time into the present.
The future never arrives; it’s made up of thoughts of what might happen next.
You don’t need to re-suffer what has happened in the past by using your memory this way, and you don’t need to be anxious about an entirely made up future scenario.
We only have now, this present moment. Your body is present now, where else can it be? What about your mind?
Bringing yourself back to now can help you feel calmer and to have more impact. The simplest way to do this is to focus on your breathing, noticing it going in and out, in order to slow it down and ground yourself in your body and in the present moment. If you focus on and really imagine pulling your breath deep into your belly, it works best I’ve found. Try it right now for a few moments – it really works.
It’s about resettling our awareness back into the current moment and back into ourselves, rather than focussing on what might happen next (we simply don’t know until it happens), or by considering what has already happened (we can’t ever undo what has already occurred.)
If this sounds simple, that’s because it is! We have overcomplicated our experience, using our powerful brains in an unhelpful way, with our minds wondering into the past and future, neither of which can impact life (which is only ever happening right here, right now.)
I like to think of my positive memories as treasures to happily look back on, but I don’t give my attention to negative memories if I can help it. Where our attention goes, energy flows. Thoughts about the past and future will occur naturally, but we can choose which thoughts to hold onto and think about more. Anything that can be used as a lesson towards my growth is what I try to consciously bring into the now from the past.
Planning for the future is done now and I love to visualise what’s next, but this is done in the present and I try to focus on a pleasant feeling plan, without attachment to the means of getting there. I try to just take the next step in the moment.
I think our fears and worries can be put into perspective if we consider the immense wonder of our very existence on this planet. It is a miracle that we’re even here, in these physical bodies, made of elements created in exploding stars billions of years ago. (This has been scientifically established, not just passed on by the spiritually-minded.)
I try to zoom out my awareness like this if I’m caught up in unhelpful thoughts or negative feelings. If I feel ‘off’, it’s a sign to take a second to slow down, get present & become more settled. Bringing attention back into the body with conscious breathing helps.
You can zoom out to get perspective (to consider that life is a miraculous & mysterious gift), to help you to zoom back into your deeper self, in the present moment, where you can take the next small step in the unfolding of life. This space is where you can access your intuition and innate wisdom, which is in all of us, always. Often this is hidden beneath layers of over-thinking, habits, beliefs and so on, like clouds hiding the sun, which is similarly always there.
This is sometimes described as your state of mind, or level of consciousness, but both point towards getting quiet and present to be better able to handle, and actually enjoy, whatever happens next.
See more from Suzie here: https://www.sychangecoach.com/
