Past, Present or Future – which do you choose?

Stop for a moment and think about your day. If you’re honest with yourself, what per-cent of the time were you reviewing some thought or feeling in the past, or anticipating some event, feeling or thinking yet to come? What percent are you really in the Now?

This happens to human beings all the time: to bring the past – positive or negative – into the present and project it into the future. We all do it, especially under stress. For instance, how many times has an argument escalated when one side or the other says, “You did this before, and I believe you are going to do it again”? We all have fear/pain from the past that we expect to feel in the future, too. It comes with being a species that primarily lives in the lower soul or psyche: what you think, feel, believe and desire. Thought is the past; thinking is the future; feelings are a distorted form of the Now.

However, we can only live, take action, and make choices in the Now. The timeframe of this world is ‘soon’ or ‘someday’ – which never comes. The timeframe of divine intelligence is ‘Now’ and ‘always’. You can only speak or listen to God in the Now. There is an eternal present that we touch in peak moments, when time seems to stretch out and yet we are fully present and aware. That is when we have peak experiences.

It’s also impossible to change your bio-computers when you are hooked into the past or the future. This means that unless you work in the Now, you can’t alter your programs – and human programming is the basis for all spiritual or holistic healing. If you are creating output from the past, it will not sit well on who you are now. If you are drawing output from the future, then you are not clearing your current issues. You have to be in the Now to correct your brain-body wiring, brain chemistry, or glitches in the bio-magnetic field. You can’t even access to your bio-computers if you aren’t in the Now!

Getting yourself into the Now and staying there is paramount. How do you do this?

• Remember to breathe. Actually notice your lungs and muscles as you draw breath in and out. (Forget to breathe, and enlightenment will be the least of your worries!)

• When you find yourself stressed or worried, treat that issue like a cloud passing by. There it goes again! If it’s in the past or future, you cannot affect it anyway!

• Be grateful for who you are and the blessings you have in your life. That will keep your focus where it should be: on all the great things happening for you right now.

Remember, what you focus on expands in your life – so what do you want more of? All the fears and worries of the past and future? Or calm, happy, liberating Here and Now? As they say in Zen Judaism: Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?