Living in the Moment Improved my Life

Eckhart Tolle believes that by living in the present we can live a more fulfilling life. I will included links below for this book if you are interested in reading it. 

After reading Eckhart Tolle – The Power of Now I was eager to practise living in the moment.  

The idea of living completely in the present comes from acknowledging how the past and future can affect us. We often replay the past in our minds thinking of things we could have done or said differently, or replay memories. Equally we anxiously or impatiently anticipate our future.  

The problem is whilst our minds are either in the past or future, we completely miss the present! 

Benefits of living in the moment 

Anyone who has been referred to a councillor after suffering from stress, anxiety or depression, may have been advised to practise mindfulness and to live in the moment. Living in the moment restricts overthinking, which can cause stress levels and negative thinking to be significantly reduced. It helps us to become more aware of our thoughts, instead of letting them overwhelm us. 

The best thing I found with living in the moment is you will also see the world in a whole different way. You will start to see things that have been right in front of you. Things that have been there the whole time but you have missed it. To be fully aware of our surroundings stops the mind from over procrastinating about things out of their control.  

For those that trust in the universe or any version of higher powers you will miss so many messages and directions that are often given. We need to be still and present to receive guidance and messages. 

Shake off the past and let the future be 

The Past is in the past! There is nothing that can be done to change it. We can cause stress levels to rise if we insist on going over and over things thinking of ways that things could have been different or asking why things happened the way they did. Whilst we procrastinate over the “shoulda woulda couldas” we are completely missing what is right in front of us. Worrying about things we cannot change causes us current unhappiness.  

Then there is the future! Have you ever worried or been anxious about something that hasn’t yet happened. Or maybe you have been dreaming of a better life. Again, this makes us miss the current moment. When you dream of a better future you are constantly telling your sub-conscience that you are not happy with your current life. This also keeps you stuck in the habit of wanting more and better.  Of course, we need to have our goals and aims to look forward to, but as we all should have learned by now is that the future is a mystery. Things often go in an unexpected fashion. There is little benefit to overthinking the unknown. Write down your goals be familiar with them, work towards them, but don’t desperately yearn for them.  

We cannot change the past nor can we predict or guarantee the future. The present is the only time we have control of. We can use the past and the future to help make decisions in our present. But they need not to consume us.  

Nothing exists outside the Now 

Don’t cloud your present with technology 

Browsing aimlessly through our phones or the Internet, again causes us to miss so much about the current moment.  

Two students of mine were sat on their phones, not saying a word to each other, and yes, they are friends. I asked them to show me their screen time. I was horrified to see 12 hours screen on their phones! 12 Hours is near enough their whole waking day. I wasn’t even sure it was possible. I wondered how much reality they miss. 

When we are on our phones, we miss so much of the world go by. Have you ever had a 10 min scroll to look up at the time and find out 2 hours have passed.  Anything that has happened around us, whilst we have been head down in a device, has been missed! 

As a society we are more than ever dictated by social status, due to the rise in social media. Over the past decade, Social Media users show the world all the great things they do and have, showing others how great their life is. Those driven by ego will feel the urge to compete, others will feel like their life is less or like they are missing out. Emotional freedom is being able to accept life for exactly how it is. Focusing on our inner being can bring peace from within. 

Being completely present makes you notice the small details, like flowers blooming, birds singing, these things sound small, but paying attention to the world outside of our thoughts can be incredibly calming. 

Hard times = Life lessons  

Many times, we will encounter emotions out of our control. That is ok, rather than desperately wishing this wasn’t happening to you right now. Acknowledge the emotion, acknowledge how it is making you feel and don’t try and fight it. Fighting back our emotions only means the feeling will come back in other ways, until we have dealt with it. 

Be content with the now, know that you are breathing and remember you are travelling through a human process. We all know how the process goes. We are born, we live and then we die. No one can escape the pattern. Everything that happens in the living process is an experience. Not all of them are what we desire, but find the lessons you have learned. Most hard times make people instantly stronger than they was before when they come out of it. 

I personally have encountered many challenging times, most of them I held on to for years (for no reason) holding on to these times did not serve me and made it hard for me to move forward. Now when I look back, I am grateful for these experiences! I am in a better position to help others; I can relate and help to give them hope that things can be overcome. These life experiences have made me wiser, more humble and more accepting. Accepting that life isn’t always the fun and roses we expect. 

Life is a rollercoaster of emotions, let them be what they are and travel through the journey.  

Free yourself from your Mind 

When someone goes to the doctor and says, “I hear voices in my head,” he or she will most likely be sent to a psychiatrist. The fact is that, in a very similar way, virtually everyone hears voices, or several voices in their head all the time: the involuntary thought processes that you don’t realise you have the power to stop. Continuous monologues or dialogues.

Eckhart Tolle

It is said that our mind thinks of 50,000 thoughts per day, Eckhart Tolle believes that the voice in our head belongs to our conditioned mind. Encouraging us to see the present through eyes of your past.  

The voice in our head is somewhat constant and feels uncontrollable, but when you change the way you listen to the voice in your head, you will start to feel more in control.  

One of the ways to listen to the voice in your head is without judgment or reaction. Just listen! Once you start to just listen without judgment you can analyse almost as a third person. Notice reoccurring thought patterns, Tolle describes this as watching the thinker. When we start to practise this, we then arise from beyond the mind. 

Free yourself from the Ego 

We are more than the mind and the ego, however people are only now learning the difference between self and ego. The ego is the part of us that  

Eckhart Tolle describes the ego in 2 states; Unconscious and conscious. 

A conscious ego may make you feel like you are not worthy, or capable. It will be the part of yourself that is critical and applies pressure to what you should be doing, who you should be and how you should look. 

The unconscious ego will strive for better wants and desires, each time it fulfils a goal it will still not be satisfied. Either ego state is in search for some sort of validation.  

When we strive for material things or justify our success by our job title it is the ego. The ego only exists in the material  

Freeing yourself from the ego isn’t something that happens overnight, it is also something that don’t need to be done completely. But you do need to identify the ego within in yourself to try and encourage a change in thinking. 

I had a friend who wholeheartedly lived in his ego, he came across arrogant to most as he didn’t find much interest in anything that wasn’t about him. He also always believed he was right. His ego was loud and everyone that knew him knew that he was in his ego. His life took so many turns that challenged this thinking eventually making him depressed. Because he was constantly annoyed when things didn’t go his way.   

My Experience 

Early 2019 I tested out Tolle’s theory. I spent a wonderful 6 months just completely living in the moment. The plan was to test it out for a month, but it was so enjoyable that I stayed in the mind set. The 6 months came to an end due to Covid, which caused an unbalance in everyone.  

Observing My Thoughts

I started off by letting my thoughts be and not consume me. Instead, I observed them like Eckhart had explained. To do this I allowed myself to think, but applied very little emotions to them. I also analysed them like I would if it was someone else. This was eye opening because what I first noticed is that every time I did sit back and let my thoughts run my mind would go blank.  

One evening I got upset about a situation with my partner, rather than getting deep into my emotions and replaying everything in my mind keeping me in that state of emotion, I remembered the journey I was on. I observed myself, I analysed how much it had affected me, I allowed myself to feel with no judgment. I refused to think about the situation and just be in the situation. After calming down significantly I was able to observe my partner without judgment and to my surprise I saw weakness this made me feel less upset instantly. I had never seen the weakness behind his actions as I had always taken them personally. For me this was a revelation, it is one of the things that made me want to stay in this mindset. 

Noticing the World Around Me

In everyday life I made sure to take the time to notice my surroundings and what was occurring in that present moment. I kept my mind focused on what was happening in front of me. Initially When I first tried this out, I would drift into my own thoughts, but I made a conscious effort to snap out of it and remind myself to look around! What is going on?  

Nature became more visually loud to me. It is like I started to see it with new eyes. 

People around me started to appear clearer, my previous overthinking and ego made me experience human interactions from my own thoughts. I was now seeing it for what it was with no judgment and I managed to see weakness, strengths, insecurities, sadness in others. I enjoyed life a lot more and almost felt like I was floating through life. 

Its ok to Reflect if it is for growth

When we went in to lockdown, I became fixated on world events, but life also made me have to reflect on the past. I think for growth it is good to reflect on the past. But know that you are reflecting to help your present self rather than to torment your current self. Unbalancing events will happen all the time, test yourself to keep calm and logical through unsteady times like covid.  

Since reading ‘The Power of Now’, my thought process has changed completely and I find myself a calmer relaxed person, Others also seem to find me a very happy person, I engage with people better and I accept the bad things that happen more easily. I recommend this book to anyone that feels trapped in his or her own minds! 

Be Present, Be Mindful and Be You!

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