NOW: the best time to live!

Posted by Walter Cabelis in Mind and Soul on July 8, 2009 | 3 responses

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Many are not aware of how we are controlled by time. From the moment we wake up till we retire at night, we are always confronted with the elements of time—what will I do tomorrow, what mistake did I did the other day, how will my life be in the future, what did I do in the past to deserve this life?—These are the questions that hunts us most of our life. Because of these we take for granted our present moment. Looking deeply, one may realize that the past and the future are only in the mind–subjective variables that guide our present decisions.

But most of the time we use such elements of time to our disadvantage. Instead of having time work for us, it’s the other way around. We pour our energy on worrying about the future; and we burden ourselves of the past. Instead of being 100% living in the present, we squander it brooding on thoughts that bring nothing but anxiety and resentments. With these powerful preoccupations of the mind, we have lost valuable opportunity to make the best of the present moment.

To elucidate, let me take the case of our past experiences and how they greatly affect our present condition. If, for example, one grew up in squalor, he may internalize such state in his mind and live the present according to the conditions of his past. Such is our nature; we have the tendency to get stuck in the past. We do not realize that each day is a choice, a new beginning to weave our life. But we never let go; instead of living each new day of promising opportunities we relapse to what was yesterday. Indeed, we live in the past as if it were the present.

On the other hand the future offers no comfort either. As we live in the past, we simultaneously leap into the future. We have all been great at constructing a ghost of the future—and are gullibly admonished by its propositions. The future we see is nothing but conjecture of the mind, and yet we are terribly affected by its apparitions that we are engulfed with anxieties.

Can we not understand that the present moment will always be the deciding factor of our lives? What we do today will certainly affect us; and whatever we build at the moment will be manifested in our everyday life. If I invest each day I will be rich in the coming days. But if I see myself rich in the future without doing some investments in the present, then I have wasted the opportunity of the moment.

I’m not belittling the lessons of the past and the probabilities of the future. The point I’m trying to make is that we should focus our attention at the present moment– not yesterday, not tomorrow. You only give reference to the past and the future to extract some nuances that will guide your present actions; once you do you should let it go; holding it long will only make errors because the past and the future—no matter how well they mirror the present—will never be like the present.

Understanding this truth is important. In the years that I’ve been living my life, I was unaware of my ignorance about this important fact. A saying goes, “Live your live one day at a time.” I never understood its profoundness until that day that it was thrust onto me.

I will never forget that one life-changing experience in my life. It was the time when I came to the awareness of my own mortality—the experience of near death. At such point every virtue that I hold came useless, I felt nothing but the reality of what I am about to face; it was so powerful that time collapsed, and for the first time I saw with great clarity where I am suppose to be—the present moment.

I’m glad to have survived such ordeal, but the lesson will forever be palpable in my life. Life should be lived in the present and to live every moment as if it were the last; for when your time comes you will have no regrets and no unfinished business.

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