Fear can’t exist in the present. It’s impossible. Fear only sits in the future. It’s the whole, “What might happen,” “This could happen,” “I’m scared/don’t want this to happen” mentality that fear thrives on. Know why we don’t want that mentality? Because it blocks our desires from showing up. But the good news is that none of that lives in the here and now…so if you can shift away from fear when it tries to sneak in…you wouldn’t keep finding yourself in a mental pickle beating yourself up over why this or that that you desire hasn’t arrived yet.
In fact, the only thing that lives in the present moment is peace. When you know you have a habit of future-tripping (like I used to) or living in the past, you overcompensate by trying to force yourself to be present. However being present cannot be forced…it’s just something you do with ease. Being present has you not thinking at all. Now…think about that for a moment…when you’re truly present in the moment…you aren’t in the past or the future so your mind is nowhere but acting as a sponge to soak in what’s coming towards you that very second.
Therefore…it is not “thinking,” it’s absorbing, engaging, listening and learning but never actually thinking. Do you know what all these practices and spiritual techniques for being present and mindful are actually for? They are for the moments when you have nothing you’re engaging in. You know…that “down time” that even if you’re super busy…you still have a moment, be it right before you close your eyes to fall asleep at night, when you first wake up in the morning or maybe while in the shower. You’re doing something routine or maybe nothing at all and there’s nothing new to actually flow into your mind so instead like a television station on the holidays…it plays reruns of old sh*t. Your mind has a dull dead air moment and skips to replay a past event/memory to ponder about a future event that hasn’t even happened yet. This is where learning how to shift your mind TO the present is crucial. These are the moments it’s needed for – when out of habit it shifts to the old and you have no idea how to bring it back to center. Let me ask you this: What do you do when you flip to your favorite channel on TV on Christmas and it’s replaying some lame old movie you don’t want to watch again? You put something else on, don’t you? Or you simply shut it off and find something else to do. Apply that to these routine moments in life where your mind is susceptible to fear sneaking in…FIND something to do the moment you feel it happening…something you wouldn’t normally do in that moment and watch how as if you were simply pushing a button on a remote…your mind shifts right back to focus on right now where all there is is peace. Today’s Daily Affirmation is:
