The Power of Now and New Years Resolutions!
Recently, I read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, and it’s something that has given me a very fresh and powerful new mindset that I felt the need to share especially since we’re getting close to the start of the new year and with a new year comes the tradition of new year resolutions and living in the now is something I would like to argue everyone adds to their resolutions for this upcoming year and every year following it.
In this book Eckhart argues for us to live our lives in the now because this is simply all that exists. Every time we try to catch a moment, it then becomes the past, and we are offered a new moment to be present in and for. Being present and having presence can help us be at ease during many of our hardships. If you’re like me and have intrusive thoughts or deal with a mental illness, this shift in mindset can help us cope by getting us as people out of “psychological time” and into the present. Since our negative thoughts are attached to time which resides either worrying about the future (anxiety) or worrying about the past (depression) being present brings us out of our default thinking whether it be worrying about something upcoming or being sad and analyzing the past. Getting out of this constant loop of thinking and being present shifts our awareness, and we can then learn to become the observer of our thoughts instead of attaching our self/identity to our thoughts.
Getting overwhelmed by our thoughts are something many people have had to deal with, especially those with mental illnesses. And many of us don’t think we have a choice to help it, and starting to live in the present moment is a choice we can make to help us from not getting overwhelmed by our thoughts. This balance of mindfulness and being present can cultivate a perception that will increase overall well-being. To be fully present, an exercise that has helped me whenever I feel stressed out from my thoughts is listing 5 objects I can see, hear and smell. This exercise stops us from focusing on our thoughts and forces us into the present moment by really embracing the being of our environment.
When I’m talking about “being” I mean the essence of existence which we often try to live outside of by living in our heads via the future and past. This constant of being in psychological time really hurts our wellbeing because we’re fighting what is by trying to either anticipate what it will be or reflecting on what it was. While the end of the year celebrations start to happen tonight and we as a society start to reflect and think of things we wish to improve on, I would urge you to stop resisting existence and just be. Whether you’re going through something rough or are in a happy stage of life, practicing presence will also teach us to be grateful of the highs and lows as they come, so we don’t have to live with one or the other to long in this psychological time. If you stay in psychological time to long, you’ll end up missing your whole life reminiscing on the good times or preparing for the future. This holiday season just be.
Starting to make the choice to be present in each fleeting moment will slowly become easier as we learn to observe our thoughts instead of attaching our identity to them. Because lots of time, we subconsciously choose to feed our depression or anxiety thoughts more and more because we become comfortable in what has bothered us for so long. Once, we start the shift to making our life lived in the moment instead of our heads, we consciously shift our energy to the present moment where we can just be. Because as we live in our heads we’re subconsciously making the present moment the enemy which forces us into a hatred of life when life is utterly beautiful.
So, this 2022 I urge you to live presently and enjoy every fleeting moment. Happy New Years to all! And remember to stay curious!