“The spirit is so near that you can’t see it! But reach for it… Don’t be a jar, full of water, whose rim is always dry. Don’t be the rider who gallops all night and never sees the horse that is beneath him.”
~Rumi
I’ll let you in on a little secret. If you’re waiting to be happy or looking forward to the time when you’ll finally feel better about yourself and your life, then you’ll be waiting for a veeery long time.
You’re caught in a cycle of hope—hoping that things will be better than they are now, hoping you’ll get over the things that bother you, and desperately wishing that disturbing thoughts and feelings will magically disappear.
And while you’re waiting and hoping for a better future, what is your present moment experience?
- You feel like you’re missing something;
- Your mind is full of thoughts telling you you’re dissatisfied and frustrated.
- You’re immersed in that inner friction of not being at ease with the moment you’re actually in right now.
If you feel like something is wrong with this moment, it makes sense that you would hope for a better moment—at some point in the future. After all, you reason, the future must be better than what’s happening now.
Here’s the problem with this line of thinking.
~~There is no future. When you drill down to understand what the future actually is, you see that it is a concept in your mind, an imagined picture of what you hope will happen, and a comparison that makes the present come up short.
~~If this moment feels somehow wrong, then you’re not opening fully to all that’s available to experience right now. You’re caught in the tunnel of your conditioned patterns. It’s like living in a cloud and forgetting that the sky exists. Or seeing only the words on a screen while losing sight of the screen itself.
Here is an essential truth, and it’s a truth that will begin to set you free. Ready? There is more to your present moment experience than your mind will have you believe.
While you’re busy in your mind hoping and wishing for things to be better, you’re missing out on a deeper exploration of the reality present right now.
And what’s present right now? This question starts you on a sacred heartfelt path of discovery.
- Take a breath and feel the life moving in your body;
- Check in with each of your five senses so you can savor you’re actual right now experience;
- Look outside the noise of the thinking mind to find the silence between thoughts, the open space of effortless being, the intimacy with all things.
Notice that all of these suggestions invite your attention to rest outside of the content of thoughts that wish and hope for something better.
These thoughts about a better future lose their power as your heart opens with infinite tenderness and welcoming to what’s here now.
If you stay attached to hope and wishful thinking, you’ve sidestepped the profound, luminous openness that’s available right now.
Forget about the future, and lean fully into all of your present moment experience. Like a miracle, you’ll find exactly the peace and well-being you’ve been looking for.