When Looking Forward Holds You Back - Focus On The Present
What are you looking forward to right now? Take a moment to think about it. It might not be your next meal, the close of work day; the weekend, meeting someone special, attaining financial independence etc. Well, you'd feel pretty much comforted by having to have something which you could look forward to. There is nothing wrong with that, or is there?
Well, looking forward to those things mentioned above is essentially living for the future. This usually is what some persons use as a convenient escape whenever they are not happy with their life's current predicament.
Crazy?
Looking forward to something in the future would ensure that our focus is always somewhere else apart from here, here where we are.. and looking at the future is also based on a probable future and this only makes us loose on the reality which is in front of us.
These days, it’s almost cliché to say that the future doesn’t exist, or that there is only one continuous now. If you’ve ever been “in the zone,” in a deep meditative state, etc, then you might have naturally experienced this.
Even if you are having very lofty hopes and aspirations, you are still not having them right now. Thus, now is your future, right now, right here. You are now in the midst of creating it. Wrapping it all together: the present moment is the future looking at it from the perspective of the past.
Thus, if currently you happen to not be content with all the things as they are presently, then what reason do you have to continue to expect that you would be magically rescued by the future? Haven’t you already proven to yourself time and again that this whole thing doesn’t work?! My intention wasn't really to induce despair or any form of hopelessness, looking at things from another perspective, this perspective precisely opens the door to a freedom which is capable of keeping you from falling into what I prefer to term the future trap. Anyone who happens to be in self-help or business circles would be able to tell you that doing the same things over and over, yet expecting different results is simple insanity. Just thinking it; shouldn’t the same standard hold true for thinking the same way consistently?!
There is a good news and the bad news here, but they are basically the same; we are creating our futures, in seconds, yes right this second. Factually, the future is never being constructed. The moment you notice that you are hoping for something or looking forward to things, these are clear enough signs to show that you are falling deep into the future trap. You should bring your attention back into the present and if possible, change things up physically. Let's say you were sitting down, once the realization hits you, just rise up, you could perhaps take a short distance walk, might just be to the next room.
Most certainly at first, you would have to bring your focus back to the moment, but it better to look at it as a practice rather than than something you aim to achieve. This mindset would help you in keeping you continually living in the moment. Ultimately it's up to you to decide how you desire you moment to be; this is your future.
iam @gidionline