The Past
Our mind is truly stunning. It can transport us to another time without ever moving our bodies. I could ask you to close your eyes and think of the best vacation you ever took. I could ask for details and sensations present while you were in this location, and your mind would be able to recreate the space and scenery. Your emotions would come along for the ride, and depending on your personality, you may feel joy or gratitude for having had the experience. Perhaps you experience longing or regret that you aren’t there now.
In essence, you have transported yourself to a space in the past. You have remembered or relived something wonderful. You may even choose to stay there for a bit or bring up the memory with a friend or family member. This is a positive way to experience the past.
The problem is when we ruminate over our negative actions or decisions. The problem is when we live in the past remembering “that thing you said that was maybe taken the wrong way.”
Rumination is living in a world that has already happened. It’s obsessing over something that cannot be edited. Rumination is only a way to continually scorn ourselves for not living up to your expectation of perfection. Guess what? You are human, you aren’t perfect, and you’ll make mistakes. The effort should be placed on learning from the mistakes and not replaying the error over and over again to simply punish yourself.
The Future
Our mind is so imaginative that it can create a vivid future. This human quality of imagination allows us to think of goals and desires. It lets us solve problems and strategize. Our creative imagination is something we can nourish to bring about potential positive outcomes and navigate away from our routine, habitual patterns.
Using our imagination allows us to travel into an unknown future and create what we want.
However, our imagination combined with our powerful negativity bias can create a scary future. Our negativity bias is intended to protect us from danger, but the reality is EVERYTHING IS DANGEROUS. But most of the time, nothing is. Anxiety is the worry of “What if?”
You can easily spiral into an anxiety attack by playing a very negative “What if?” game with yourself. The effort here is using that same beautiful imagination to create a better, brighter future. We forget how unbelievably resilient we are. Recognize that you have gone through a lot and you are still here. You have the strength and ability to get through this.
The NOW
When do you experience NOW?
Now is you, reading this article. Now is you, breathing. Now is you, holding the newspaper or phone or computer. NOW IS NOW.
We must remember to come back to this moment. With awareness, we are able to breathe and simply rest in the moment. Joy is not found in the future. It is found in the now.
When we plan for joy or remember a time we were joyful, we are living in our mental time machine. As stated above, these are beneficial, but the moment is now. Don’t wait for the vacation to be joyful and present. You can do that now.
Meditation and mindfulness practices allow us to practice being here and living in this moment. As with everything, it is a practice, and it starts with one breath or observation of what “now” feels like.
NOW frees us from rumination and anxiety. NOW lets us be free at this very moment.
Breathe because you are alive! This is NOW.
