If not now, when?
Imagine if movie cameras took on the personality of the footage they were exposed to!
Are you ready to take the challenge and see which one you are?
If so, read on but get ready to use your imagination!
Pretend that you are a movie camera. Not just any movie camera but rather a very special movie camera, with a joy-stick for focusing in on optimism and pessimism, one with a built-in two way microphone/speaker system. A camera that not only is able to film the show but one that has the ablity to analyze it as well. Your feelings are the background, the emotional soundtrack for the ever present movie of now. Now is now. Now is literally this very second, every second. Anything other than that is either the past or the future. The past is a memory, a gold mine of wisdom that could not have been attained any other way. The future is a dream, a sliver of possibility and a compass so-to-speak of where you would like to be at one point.
Your thoughts are either one of two things. Either they are of the ego (the actor) or of the director (the movie camera). Each one has their own angle of perception. If your thoughts are of the ego they would have you (the actor) believe that you are your thoughts. In which case you must constantly be at the ready to defend yourself at all times against the scene before you.
If they are of the director (the movie camera) they see you as separate from the visual, verbal and emotional soundtrack and would have you believe that you are in charge of changing the current scene/thought at will. I.e. This scene could be better how? What can I add to make a better now? The glass is “now” half full.
In either case you cannot erase what is. Just as the now is always the never-ending moment through which we live life, the “IS”, is always going to turn into a, “was” in the next moment of now. Holding on to an old “was” will prevent you from achieving true happiness which can only ever be achieved, one now after another by living in the now. If you live in the future, thinking about how things could be or should be you can never be truly happy in the now because you are not present.
As for living in the now I am not saying that either you are able to do it or that you are not. My belief is that we can only ever be as good at something as we allow ourselves to be. This of course means by the amount we practice it! Living in the now takes effort, it takes a lot of effort in the beginning because we are forever wanting to drift off into the past or future so as to not have to deal with the now. Oblivious to the fact, that is the only place true joy can be found.
Catching yourself leaving your present state of consciousness (the now) is simarlar to teaching a child to close the door, take their boots off, hang up their coat, put their things away, brush their hair, sit up straight. . . you get the picture! Learning how to live in the now is not something that you will read or hear and shazzam everything will just suddenly change. The only shazzam moment that you are ever going to have about leaning how to live in the now is that you have the choice to be either the ego (the actor) or the director (the camera) and that every moment thereafter you have the same choice. Now, how are you going to divvy up those moments; 50/50, 60/40, 72/28?
Having discovered my purpose in life is the one thing that keeps me from drifting for too far or too long off of the trail. But when I do drift off on occasion, my purpose reminds me, rather than me having to remind me that it is time to return to the now.
Discover Your Purpose ~ Unlock Your Potential.