This article ended up being long, but it’s worth your time, I promise you that. You see, you want to live in the moment, but something is keeping you from it. Why? And what is it? This article covers these questions.
So here’s the good news: you’re already in the moment so you can quit worrying about living in it.
Aren’t you in the moment already?
Is there a moment that is happening right now? And are you within that moment?
Yes. So clearly there could never be a ‘how to’ for living in the moment — that’s the bad news (yes I realize the title of this article is not accurate — it was intentional)
Actually, you don’t even have a choice whether you’re in this moment or not. This moment is happening, you are in it. Moments will continue on happening for the rest of your life, and you will be within them for the rest of your life. After that, who knows. But until then, this is reality. There is a moment happening, and you are in that bitch. Get it?
So why is this such a common thing people say: “how do I just be in the moment!”?
This isn’t just a semantic wordsmith game. It’s important to realize what you’re really after. After all, the chances of stumbling into what you really want goes down dramatically if you haven’t clearly defined what it is that you’re after. Isn’t that true?
Here’s what you really want — you want your chattering egoic mind to shut the hell up. That’s what you want. The humming echo of bad emotions, the chattering imagination box of ‘things to do’ or regrets, or fears. That little asshole is messing up your life. That little asshole is taking over your moments.
You want to enjoy life for what it is, which is a beautiful and fascinating experience. You want to see the depth of things. You want to see beauty. You want to be content and happy, not imprisoned by a lunatic that won’t shut up.
And you do enjoy life! Sometimes. Not always, and not necessarily on command. I know this about you because it’s me, too. It’s every non-enlightened human being on the planet actually. You aren’t a special situation, and neither am I.
Why Can’t You Take Charge?
There is a compulsive part of yourself at work here. The mind. This compulsive part hasn’t been properly identified, managed, and whipped into shape by YOU. That is reality. Is it your fault? Probably not. You probably just didn’t know what to do, like me for so many years.
So admit this to yourself: you have a compulsive mind that isn’t really under your control at this point. It’s carrying on, doing it’s thing, ruining your party, whenever it feels like it. You are trapped by it. You are a prisoner, being let out occasionally, but only on it’s watch. That’s what the reality is. Scary right?
You see, you must understand that who you are is not your chattering imagination box, your fears, your emotions, the compulsive bullshit in your head. None of that is you. You are the witnesser of these things. The awareness. The consciousness. Whatever you want to call it. Can you watch your thoughts right now? You can, can’t you? That is you. Your thoughts and emotions are just happening, they are not you.
So you are the part that can recognize what’s going on within your body, your mind, and your emotions. This is where all the beautiful, sweet, and inspired things come from…you. This is where your highest intentions reside. This is where the ability to be grateful resides. This is where the ability to recognize beauty resides. This is also where peace and happiness resides.
My Story, In a Nutshell
Something happened to me a few months ago: I actually started meditating on a regular basis. Instead of just talking about it, I actually started doing it. I listened to this book and put it’s program into practice (thank you so much Roger!). I was 100% diligent, because after all — nothing else in life had worked. Getting a new car didn’t work. Getting a house didn’t work. Getting a high paying job didn’t work. Getting ripped didn’t work. Getting girls didn’t work. Having certain religious beliefs didn’t work.
Nothing worked. I wanted to be happy and liberated from the desires and compulsions that were ruining my life. I wanted to be in charge. I already know this is what you want too.
Then I started learning everything I could about meditation and randomly ran into an amazing human being called Sadhguru. When I watched this video, something came ‘online’ for me. I had a weird and almost painful epiphany (basically just like that .gif) a complete moment of clarity came: I realized I could actually be in complete charge of every single moment I chose to be, I just had to practice at it.
“Could being completely happy really be as simple choosing to be, each and every moment? Shit. That seems way too simple, and also like way too much responsibility. I just have to train myself to be in charge? Faaaaaaaurk. ”
An internal fight went down….
I had been meditating for around a month when this happened. It was the perfect storm of information that was ready to be received and then BOOM! Mind. Was. Shattered.
Life will never be the same. I’m not Mr. Enlightened yet, but I do know that it’s possible to be. And I also know how my inner experience of life has already completely transformed. I’m sure I’ll attempt to describe this in further detail at some point in the future.
Why Meditation Is So Important
If you’re not meditating at this point, you should probably get a clue. Even NFL teams are starting to incorporate meditation and yoga as part of required training for their athletes. There’s simply too much research on it’s positive effects in performance to ignore at this point.
I’m not going to act like I’m a scientist, but you really ought to watch this video so you can realize just how powerful this shit is — from a scientific point of view. Since lots of Americans have undercover prejudice against Indian dudes that wear strange clothing, it might be smart to realize the power of meditation from a scientific point of view, before you learn about it from a real master.
But from my perspective, meditation essentially helps you distinguish between you (the observer) and the compulsions (your mind and body). Most people have no clue what the difference is (don’t worry, I didn’t either). After practice, you will start to gain crystal clear clarity on which parts of you are simply old compulsive behaviors, old thought loops and distortions, and old emotional patterns. When you know, with clarity, which part of is the old shitty part, you can take charge. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted? Me too.
How To Get Started
This post is getting too long, but my journey started with this book. The book covers the science of meditation and then lays out a very practical and flexible meditation schedule. Do what it says! Seriously, this is your life. Be happy! Is anything more important? Could you ever give what you don’t have within yourself?
If you decided not to get that book, here are some guided mediations fo’ free. If you start off doing one of these, everyday, for one month, you WILL experience big time benefits. No doubt about it. Promise.
So what’s stopping you? Just do it.
Love you all. Hope this helps someone.
