Present - the only link between Past and Future

With clouds all around in an evening flight from Delhi to Bangalore, the pilot confirms there is choppy weather ahead and hence, we need to tighten our seat belts. Thoughts of all that could go wrong in a splash of a second swirl in my mind, including a Netflix series where a plane went through choppy weather and as they landed, 5 years had passed by. And ah! I start thinking, that could happen to me too. It would have taken a maximum of three minutes to process this entire chain of thought, of all that could potentially happen and then, a small click in my head somewhere affirms, “Everything is alright, you will be fine.”

This switch in a matter of minutes, makes me think of how our mind plays games with us. I do believe, as we grow up, we tend to see everything with an element of skepticism and naturally more often than not our mind finds comfort in planning for the future with caution and at times negativity. It is equally comforting to make ourselves the victim in the current moment.

Common statements we all hear and practice where our mind is playing to give justification for our action in past or for a potential future outcome where we don’t want to take direct responsibility and not act in present moment

• I will be thinking of changing my department next year, if my peer is promoted and is going to lead the business, I don’t want to work with him in the future (we are so dependent on somebody else’s future actions, that we are basing our own actions/future on them).
• Although I didn’t want to go to a party I still went as my friends insisted, I didn’t enjoy it a single bit (the victim is also the decision maker of going to the party). It is comforting to put the responsibility on someone else.
• I have done my bit in this relationship, but my partner is just not understanding, they have always been like this (the victim here is me as I am the one putting in the efforts, either take the action consistently and be happy with it or move out of the situation).?

?Of course, in life, emotions are a little more complicated than what is mentioned here and we seem to be governed by many conditionings: self, social, moral, financial. But the ways of life can be less complicated if we try to live more in the present moment and have a broad idea of where we want to go as well as have a strong belief in our actions and unwavering faith.

Back to my fear of being a victim in a flight in bad weather to quickly watching the beauty of multi-layered clouds outside the plane window, I realised the journey of training my mind to be in the present moment has helped me immensely. I am able to time and again get back my mind to what I am doing?‘Now’.

This has worked wonders for me, my journey started at a time when I was going through a difficult phase in my life and I felt loosing control over all phases of my life and obviously future!!. Being the control freak that I was, it felt as if I was turning out to be a loser. Slowly, I realised, other than my actions in the present moment, I never had and will never have any control over the outcomes. The results were actually a manifestation of consistent effort in a particular direction and the power to work on those efforts came from staying in the present moment.

We are taught all through in our lives to focus to outcomes, achieve certain grades in exam or enter a particular university or a high paying job, complete the most profitable project, a happy married, family life, houses, cars, hefty amount in your bank account and then we will be happy… but having passed through the journey, I do feel we should change the teachings if you will enjoy the current moment and be fully immersed in whatever you are doing without thinking of the outcome, you will be happy.?And being happy is what the eventual purpose of life is, isn’t it?

I do remember that my favourite assignments at work have been where I blissfully enjoyed solving complex problems, without thinking about the time in the clock or money I was going to earn. As those were the moments, I was living in the present. Such are the instances even in personal life.?Present is where life exists.

Few practices which have helped me stay in the moment that I wanted to share:

1)??????Start one day at a time - I started by living in the current day, worrying about just the present day, as living just in the moment was too scary for me in the beginning!!

2)??????If you are worried about future or upset about past, indulge yourself in some other activity which engages you actively, walking running, painting, gardening, playing where your energy is well channelised

3)??????Write down positive affirmations about yourself, reassuring yourself always helps

4)??????This one is my second best favourite, I learnt from a reel of a spiritual teacher, when you are anxious, feel your breath, if you can feel it, means you are still breathing, means there is more that you can do ‘Now’. Be calm, you have not lost the plot.

5)??????This is one is my go-to when my mind wanders - Do some Japa (again affirmation but towards the larger Universe or greater power)

6)??????Last but not the least, living in the present does not mean you are not planning, it just means you are not worrying unnecessarily about the future and focusing on your actions for this moment and being honest about it.

Though I have surely not perfected the art and it is a work in progress, but to me Now is the only thing in my hand and rest all is designed by a bigger Power or Universe and is purely out of my control.

Most recommended book on this topic : Eckhart Tolle’s 'Power of Now' is an amazing one on this.

Ahana Jain , thanks for picture