Where Am I Now?
Answering the question “where am I now?” is a first step in conscious reality creation.
The philosophy of Pathalking, when all is said and done, is about using conscious reality creation to direct the journey. Knowing what you desire to create for your life, and how you’d like it to look, provide the goal.
However, the future is not yet written. To get anywhere ahead of where you are now – you need to know where you are now.
Many people fail to see the value of living in the now and being present. They don’t understand that the now is the only aspect of time and reality that’s utterly, truly, real.
That’s why there are plenty of gurus, teachers, and the like who emphasize the importance of the journey over the destination. Having an end goal provides the direction for your path. But only in the now can you be ON the path in full.
What’s more, when you are mindful and aware of yourself, here and now, you become empowered to control your mindset/headspace/psyche inner being. That, in turn, opens the door to altering subconscious beliefs, habits, and values that might be interfering, now, with where you want to go.
We are all hyper-aware of the past. Personal or societal, the past is often looked to with reverence, nostalgia, and even longing.
But the past has passed. It’s done, over, and cannot be returned to. Repeated, certainly – redone, no. For a lot of people, however, this is hard to accept.
To make choices and decisions for where you want to go, you must know where you are now.
Why “Where am I now?” is the starting point
The question, “Where am I now?” is both literal and metaphorical. While where, physically, you are in the here-and-now has an impact on life, the Universe, and everything – it’s where, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, that conscious reality creation is based.
I am, right now, sitting at my desk in my home office, writing this article. That’s where I am physically. Mentally, I’m considering the next sentence and the overall direction of this article. Emotionally, I’m feeling good about doing this work. Spiritually, I’m getting in touch with unseen forces to best explain what I am striving to share here.
If I had no idea of where I was, right now, I’d be floundering. This article would not be coming together, and the idea I am working on sharing with you wouldn’t get shared.
As you read this, I am done writing this article. Where am I now? For you, that’s not important. But for me, whatever work I am doing, it will be done better, clearer, and with more direction, if I have that answer.
Now, this moment in time, is the result of many things. This includes past experiences, lessons, achieved and failed goals, good and bad relationships, and everything else I’ve experienced physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I am, right now, the most real that I can be.
Knowing where I am – more than how I got here and where I desire to go – tells me a lot. With this knowledge, the choices and decisions for where I desire to be have clarity. That clarity tells me what it will take to walk the paths to create the life I desire to have in the now – but that is not quite here yet.
That’s why knowing “where am I now?” is the starting point of conscious reality creation.
Practicing mindfulness in the now
When you practice mindfulness, you put yourself firmly in the here-and-now. That’s because mindfulness is conscious awareness of what’s both within and without – in the now.
Alongside the question of “where am I now?”, mindfulness paves the way to the inner paths between your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual being.
This begins with awareness of your sensory input via your six senses. Additionally, conscious awareness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.
To ascertain this, the following questions develop the perspective of your inner being – your mindset/headspace/psyche self:
- Where am I now?
- What am I thinking?
- How am I feeling?
- What am I thinking?
- What is my intent with this action?
There are other questions, but these are all keys to recognizing and using mindfulness.
Once you become better aware of your conscious self, you become empowered to understand, work with, and alter your subconscious self. That opens you to knowing and changing your beliefs, habits, values, and the underlying sense of being.
Conscious awareness is how you know, literally and metaphorically, where you are now. When you really know this, you empower yourself to change it as you most desire to.
How? By seeing where you desire to go in relation to where you are. That allows you to see where you desire to be as if you are already there with more clarity.
In the idea of linear time, this is how you create the pathway to be walked to get from here to there, wherever there might be.
Mindfulness is how you know, in the here-and-now, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and figuratively, the answer to “where am I now?”
From here, you have a clearer idea of the path to take to “where do I desire to be?”
“Where am I now?” is knowledge
Knowledge is power. Knowing where you are, what you are, who you are, and why you are, informs your perspective on life, the Universe, and everything.
When you have the perspective more in-hand and are working to be consciously aware, you are better equipped to handle the unexpected.
The only thing you have true control over is you. Specifically, who, what, where, why, when, and how you are. Apart from that control – which is both literal and metaphorical – all else is outside your design.
Shit happens. And you can do nothing about it until it does. You will be fired, dumped, unfriended, yelled at, treated poorly, belittled, and otherwise experience unwanted, bad things. That’s part of the human experience and it applies to EVERYONE.
However, when you are consciously aware of yourself – you might be caught off-guard, but you are better prepared to react from a place of strength rather than one of weakness.
When you are lost in thought, going about your day by rote and routine, and subconsciously doing your thing – and you will be in this state from time to time – when shit happens, the impact can be particularly brutal. If you have not been practicing mindfulness and being consciously aware of yourself, reaction and recovery must reach the level ground of awareness first.
If you regularly practice mindfulness and being consciously aware, reaching that needed level ground is much easier to do. Knowing “where am I now” and related questions provide equilibrium. That, in turn, makes handling the unexpected shit that WILL happen a lot easier.
Practice makes perfect
Asking the questions to invoke conscious awareness and be in the here-and-now is an ongoing process. You cannot just do it once and be done – because change is constant. The answer you have to these questions now likely will be different later today. Almost certainly different tomorrow.
This can be a scary prospect for many people. And that’s part of why they don’t like to ask, and prefer not to know, the answer to “where am I now?” Society loves to make it look like the escape and avoidance of shit that happens – or making not choices and decisions for yourself – lessens pain and suffering.
That’s simply not true. Pain and suffering are part of the human experience. And whether you believe in a higher power or not, to quote Paulo Coelho,
“When you find your path, you must not be afraid. You need to have sufficient courage to make mistakes. Disappointment, defeat, and despair are the tools God uses to show us the way.”
Blaming other people, circumstances, or otherwise avoiding pain not only doesn’t lessen it – it opens the door to repeating and worsening it. Pain and suffering suck – but they are also teachers. From them, we grow, gain new insight, and can choose how to change.
You are thusly empowered. That’s why being mindful, consciously aware, in the here and now, is so powerful. It lets you be proactive and gives you the keys to take control of the only thing over which you HAVE control – YOU.
Practice makes perfect. Asking the questions and mindfully knowing the answers, here and now, is how you consciously create reality. To start down any path of your choosing, you need to know where you start from. You need to answer the question, on all levels, “where am I now?”
Where are YOU – physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally – now?
This is the four-hundred and eighty-third exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. Additionally, I desire to empower myself and my readers with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-blog and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing, both fiction and non-fiction, are available here.
Please take a moment to subscribe to my mailing list. Fill in the info and click the sign-up button to the right and receive your free eBook. Thank you!
Follow me here!
