At the moment I am reading a book called Loyalty to your Soul. The Heart of Spiritual Psychology by Ronald & Mary Hulnick. I highly recommend this book if you’re into spiritual psychology because it explains the concept in great detail. And I recently read a passage about living in the now.
Listen here
Whenever I heard that phrase, I never understood the true meaning of it. Living in the now sounded like a woo-woo concept. Am I not supposed to worry about all of the groceries I have to do tomorrow? Or that work deadline next week? Am I just to forget the past and focus on the sensations here and now? Hearing that phrase always made me think of a person sitting in lotus position, meditating on a blanket.
Does this sound like something you picture when you hear the phrase living in the now?
What I thought living in the now looked like….
In order to understand what living in the now really means, we need to cover a few things:
The school called LIFE
To me, and many people agree with me, our lives here on earth are just a bunch of human experiences added together. These experiences together are a curriculum – life is meant for learning. We’re meant to learn from every experience.
Whenever we feel anger, sadness, fear, resistance – it’s an indication that you need to work through a lesson. The universe is sending you experiences that are uncomfortable (most of the time) so that you can learn from it, and therefore grow.
what does a “lesson” look like then?
Here’s a real life example from my work life
A few years ago, I was at a work meeting and one of my colleagues stole my idea and presented it as his own. Worst part: my boss loved the idea and gave him all the credit. As you can imagine, I was angry AF. I did all the research, added my creativity and came up with a solution. And he gets all the credit? WTF.
There were 2 things I could do:
1. Blame him. I could confront him and tell him he stole my idea and that it was wrong.
This option is called “victim-mode”. I am blaming someone/something else for my discomfort & anger.
2. Confront myself. I need to confront my own ego and ask myself: what is causing this anger inside of me? What could I have done differently?
This is the more difficult option. It’s hard to look in the mirror and say to yourself that you need to learn a lesson here and take responsibility for the actions.
At the time, I chose option 1.
Right now, I would choose option 2.
What option 2 looks like:
The reason I was angry was because I was too insecure to speak up during the meeting. I didn’t believe in my idea and therefore didn’t share it. I was afraid to be judged by my colleagues thinking that it was a stupid idea. In college, I remember sharing my thoughts and being shutdown by one of my classmates who laughed at my answer. I saw this as a negative experience. My mind remembered this and stored a new file called Don’t speak up in class/meetings, just keep thoughts to yourself and work them out in your private time until you are 100% sure they’re amazing and successful.
So, no, I was not angry because he stole my idea, I was angry because of the reasoning above.
Lesson learned: share your ideas. Stop worrying about what other people think. Grow some balls and speak up.
Did you not learn the lesson? The universe will come back and teach you again. Until you master it…..
Ever notice certain patterns in your life (your love life, for example….)? That means you’ve not mastered the lesson. #whoops.
Back to living in the now. This is the definition:
If we believe life is a string of learning experiences, the thing that we can do NOW is choose to respond differently to the given situation (the lesson).
Living in the now means taking the personal responsibility to evaluate and react to the present moment and choosing a response that serves your purpose and is aligned with your Highest Self.
Accept that all things in life are happening FOR you instead of TO you.
Let that sink in for a moment.
You have a choice to respond differently to any given situation than you have before. Once you choose to confront your own ego instead of blaming others/outside sources for your emotions, you will master your lesson.
What are you choosing NOW?
What can you do NOW to ensure you grow?
What lesson are you supposed to be learning NOW so that you can shape your future more positively?
Big questions, right?
You can do it
If you ever want to talk about issues you’re facing, or maybe you’re not sure what the universe is trying to teach you. Let’s go over it together. Confronting the ego is a scary thing to do, and maybe it helps to talk about it and do it together with someone who is able to guide you. To ensure it won’t turn into a total sh*t show haha.
I’m here for you. Let’s chat.
As always, much love from my side of the screen. You are seen. You are heard and you are loved! <3