Crossing the Bridges: Living in the Here & Now
I believe that the key to happiness is living in the now.
This is particularly challenging, because our society is rather fond of living in the then and living for tomorrow.
I have goals and aspirations. One of the reasons I began this portion of my blog was to explore how to live and work in all the worlds I do. I need to cross between separate aspects of my life, different forms of writing, my social life and my professional life and so forth, despite them all being a part of the overall greater whole.
One of the greater challenges in this process, though, is my perception of time. It is imperative that I do better with living in the here-and-now, rather than considering past matters or focusing on the future.
I have determined that there are two things I want from my life. I want to write, and see my novels become best sellers and get turned into TV shows and movies. Tall order, but I think it’s not outside of the realm of possibility. I want to take Pathwalking out of the blog, and turn it into a coaching practice, and help others find and live their own empowerment, choosing their own destinies.
One of the biggest problems with these goals is where I see them. I know full well that I see them ahead, in time, eventually, or down the line; but however you want to phrase it they are in the future. They are something to be reached, something to be worked towards.
This. Right. Here. This is the problem. Every single book I have read or listened to about consciousness creating reality and manifestation states that you HAVE to see the things you want as already yours. Right here, right now. Not “will be” or “coming soon” or “down the line” or “in the future”, but here and now. In the present tense. You have to clearly picture them in your life right now, to give them clarity and power in order to consciously create them.
Time is utterly relative. This is why it is imperative to envision your goal as if you have already achieved it. Both philosophers and scientists have made this point, that time is an illusionary concept. Much of how we perceive time is artificial, which can be hard to believe, but is true none-the-less.
When I recovered from my injuries after getting hit by a car crossing a street, I know that I didn’t see myself as healed “eventually”. I didn’t see myself walking in the future, I saw it right then and there. Yes, I was either bound to a wheelchair or using crutches or a walker, but nevertheless I saw myself as being whole, and everything working just like it had before. Yes, there are some wicked scars remaining, titanium plates in my right shoulder, and parts of my right arm are still fairly numb – but to all intents and purposes I am fully healed, and can walk, run, and use my arm like before my injuries.
I refer to this example a lot because it was probably the most profound moment in my life. I was severely broken, and when faced with a choice of curl up in a ball and hope for death, let it heal as it heals, or push and fight every step of the way, I chose to fight. I was changed not just physically by that moment in my life, but mentally and emotionally, too. I am striving to recapture the focus and absolute beliefs I held during that period in my life, because I know that I am capable of manifesting what I need, because I have done it before.
I need to work on perceiving the bridges I cross not being between today and tomorrow, but all being in the same time. I need to envision myself with bestselling novels. I need to feel how it would feel to have an offer on the table for the screen rights to my work. I need to imagine in detail teaching a class of Pathwalkers, and having people come to me to learn to better empower themselves. I need to feel how it will feel to have the wealth and abundance this will bring me, and how it will feel to give large donations to charity, to be even more generous to friends and family, right now, as if this IS my life.
Overall I need to live more in the here-and-now. Analyzing the past is not my biggest issue, I recognize that my past is past…it’s worrying about the future that is most challenging. This is particularly convoluted these days, largely because of massive uncertainty in the American political climate. I can’t do anything but protect those I love in the here-and-now, so I know that I need to be more thoroughly thinking, feeling and acting in the here-and-now.
How do I move my thoughts from tomorrow into today? I need to be more aware of my self-talk. I am checking in with myself several times a day with questions about How Am I? What am I thinking? and How am I feeling? These came of Pathwalking in Practice, and are meant to make me more aware, right here and now. I think I might need to add the question, Am I thinking about things ahead of me, or in the now? Simple question, simple answer, but that doesn’t make it any less important.
Living in the now is imperative for finding empowerment, peace and happiness. I cannot reclaim the past and I can’t live in tomorrow, so focusing on here and now allows me to simply BE. The power of that is incredible, and I know from everything I have studied that in doing this, I will cross every bridge I need to in order to manifest the life I most want.
Thought. Feeling. Action. Right here, right now…I can do almost anything I can imagine. Thank You for crossing the bridges between my worlds with me.
GOAL LOG – Week 6:
Diet: Continuing with being mindful about what and how much I am eating.
Exercise: Two days of fencing and two days at the gym.
Writing: The three blogs got written, I spent much of a snow day working on the sci-fi novel, and also worked on another story another day.
Meditation: I meditated 3 days last week, never less than 6 minutes.
Gratitude: I wrote five things I was grateful for on three days this week.
This is the twentieth entry of my personal journey, the Crossing the Bridges series. My collectively published writing can be found here.
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