What is the power of now?

byvladc2002

105 followers

Updated 5 years ago

After having read Practicing the Power of Now by Eckhart tolle, I have learnt new ways to deal with pain and suffering that have had a positive impact on my mood. I encourage you to read the book if you haven't already as it will provide you with more insight as to why staying present is the best thing you can do for your happiness. Who doesn't want to be more happy and less stressed?

Although, in my opinion, depression and sadness and pain are a normal part of life, being in the Now can greatly increase your happiness and your overall prductivity. In other words, you can become a beast!

I will attempt to summarise my learnings of the book in this post. Some of these will be exact quotations from the book whereas some will be my own notes. Let's begin.

To free yourself from the mind, start by listening to the voice in your head and pay particular attention to any repetitve thoughts. The main key here is to not judge the thoughts, but merely observe them.

You cannot find the present moment as long as you are your mind.

Make a habit to ask yourself: "What's going on inside me at this moment?"

Realize deeply that the present momenn is all you have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life. Nothing ever happened in the past, it happened in the Now. Nothing will ever happen in the future, it will happen in the Now. Make it a practice to withdraw attention from the past and future whenever they are not needed.

If you find it hard to enter the Now, start by observing the habitual tendency of your mind to want to escape the Now.

Be the Watcher of your mind, not the Thinker.

The moment you realise you are not present, you are present. Be grateful for the present moment

Use your senses fully.

Stress is caused by being in the present, but wanting to be in the future.

Meditation helps. Focus on the body and the feeling that arise within, but do not focus on the images that also arise. Then focus on the inner energy field of the body- look at yourself and your body as one.

Whenever an answer, a solution or a creative idea is needed, stop thinking for a moment by focusing your attention on your inner energy field. Become aware of the stillness. When you resume thinking it will be fresh and creative. You should do this for a few minutes.

Whenever you are in pain, simply watching the pain and acknowledging that it is there will make it dissipate. The moment you accept your non-peace, your non-peace becomes transmuted into peace.

Practice surrendering in your every day life. As you surrender, direct your attention inward to check if there is any trace of resistance left inside of you. Full attention is full acceptance, is surrender.

Lots of information here, but I invite you to give this a try. Start off with one of these tips a day, then add some more as you get more comfortable with it. I promise you that you will see a great improvement in your mood and maybe even your prductivity!