Living in the present for the sake of the future.
I always thought there was a little bit of a contradiction between living in the present moment and accepting what is, and the idea of visualizing about the future and wanting to manifest better things/situations etc. But then yesterday I had an "aha moment" about that.
There is no short cut to the future. The only portal into the "future" is the present moment. If I want, for instance, to launch my greeting card line, no amount of visualizing and wishing is gonna actually get me there. I have to return to the present moment and figure out what it is that I can do RIGHT NOW to bring me closer to my goal. Even a thousand mile journey starts with one small step.
So I realized that to live in the present does not have to exclude wanting something in the "future", it just means that to get to that "future" we have to stay in the present at all times, because only this precise moment will yield the next. We can't skip ahead.
So now when I find myself dreaming of something I want in the future, I ask myself "what can I do right NOW to bring me closer to that?" Even if that means to simply get up out of the couch and take a shower it is an important first step on that thousand mile journey. Or it could be to call an important person, make an appointment, google some resources, make a to do list, switch my attitude, take a deep breath, imagine different possibilities, eat lunch, write down some new ideas. It just takes one step to create a momentum that then propels me to to take the next step.
Yesterday I was driving and I thought, well, there ain't nothing much I can do right now as I'm driving, to bring me closer to the goal of launching my greeting card line.....but there was! One thing I could do right then in that present moment to get me closer to my goal was for example, breathe. Focus on conscious breathing as a way to relax and de-stress. Because being stressed out can cause a ripple effect and instead of working on my greeting cards when I got home I would probably just be too stressed out and tired and then eat some junk food instead and fall asleep in front of the TV.
There is no short cut to the future. The only portal into the "future" is the present moment. If I want, for instance, to launch my greeting card line, no amount of visualizing and wishing is gonna actually get me there. I have to return to the present moment and figure out what it is that I can do RIGHT NOW to bring me closer to my goal. Even a thousand mile journey starts with one small step.
So I realized that to live in the present does not have to exclude wanting something in the "future", it just means that to get to that "future" we have to stay in the present at all times, because only this precise moment will yield the next. We can't skip ahead.
So now when I find myself dreaming of something I want in the future, I ask myself "what can I do right NOW to bring me closer to that?" Even if that means to simply get up out of the couch and take a shower it is an important first step on that thousand mile journey. Or it could be to call an important person, make an appointment, google some resources, make a to do list, switch my attitude, take a deep breath, imagine different possibilities, eat lunch, write down some new ideas. It just takes one step to create a momentum that then propels me to to take the next step.
Yesterday I was driving and I thought, well, there ain't nothing much I can do right now as I'm driving, to bring me closer to the goal of launching my greeting card line.....but there was! One thing I could do right then in that present moment to get me closer to my goal was for example, breathe. Focus on conscious breathing as a way to relax and de-stress. Because being stressed out can cause a ripple effect and instead of working on my greeting cards when I got home I would probably just be too stressed out and tired and then eat some junk food instead and fall asleep in front of the TV.
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