Living in the Now without Baggage

Why is it that so many people can’t appreciate the now? Someone’s at a birthday party yet they can’t seem to snap out of their depressing mood and be happy, why not? Probably because he can’t stop thinking about what’s bothering him; he could have anxiety issues, disappointment from expectations, maybe he’s bitter, or even just sad because he keeps thinking how unhappy he is with his life. But what if I told you that this is a problem having to do with illusion, it’s easy to dispel illusion only once you are able to see it for what it is.

Why do I talk about the now and psychological issues people have? I don’t believe in the word psychological, it doesn’t sound right. I believe everything is spiritual, from your colds to your emotional well-being, it’s all connected. But about the now, what does that mean? If you are at a party, and you are living in the now, you’ll appreciate the lights, the people, the conversations, the environment, or at least you’ll be able to take everything all in without anything pulling you into negativity. But the problem is no one lives in the now.

People living in the past keep holding on to their pain, but why? If you hold negative emotions it will turn into depression, rage, confidence issues, resentment, and bitterness. It’s because of the illusion of time that we do this. Time is not linear, we unfortunately do not go through time, and time instead flows through us linearly. What actually exists? Does the past or future exist at all? Once a moment has passed, it becomes the past right? Well if the moment has passed then that moment becomes illusory, for does that moment exist anymore but in our minds? What about the future? Can you know everything that will happen down to the very atomic detail and all the infinite number of variables that will occur?

When a moment has passed it becomes the past, and holding on to an illusory past is futile for it takes you away from the now thinking all about what could have been or what should have been. Bitterness is like drinking a cup of poison and hoping the other person dies. Bitterness affects the person holding it, not the person blamed for it, so why would a person put themselves through misery affecting their chances of a happy life?

Now if you hold expectations, you have to ask how can you predict the unknown future? It’s at best a bad guess of the future, and the moment you create an expectation you create the disappointment to be had later. How can you expect things? If you expect things, you’re too busy living in an illusory future. It’s like planning, when your plan goes sour, you get angry because things didn’t go according to your expectations. But isn’t that how it usually ends up? It doesn’t matter what expectations you have because no matter how close you get to fulfilling it, it doesn’t come close to what you expected because expectations and reality never go hand in hand. The economic housing crisis that started in 2009 was because of bad expectations from economists who thought that people would be rational and pay back their debts.

If you have expectations how will you ever be happy? If you get your expectation fulfilled completely, you won’t be happy you’ll just think “yes that’s right, it went according to my plan.” Would you be happy? If you go on holiday and have certain expectations of the trip, for sure you will be disappointed some just because not everything went according to plan, or because you did what you planned and it didn’t turn out to be as fun as you had thought? What if you went out on a date and had expectations, would the date turn out well? What if you decided to forgo all your expectations? What if you went on holiday with the intent of just being in another country? How disappointed would you be? How happy would you be? I guarantee you wouldn’t be unhappy thinking about an illusory future and how it hasn’t been fulfilled.

Anxiety is the same exact thing, it’s perceived fears of the future and it’s an illusory future at best, but with this issue you have the mind feeding you negative views of the future. You’re afraid of snake bites, yet most snake bites don’t kill you because unless the snake wishes you dead it’s not going to invest most of its venom on you. If you have stepped on one, then it’s go time and you should probably run, but you get what I’m saying right? If you’re going to get bit, then why worry about it? Worry about it when it happens, not long before. Sure take precautions so it doesn’t happen, but what else can you do about it? Life is about experience, if you have anxiety issues because you’re worried things won’t turn out how you want them (expectations), then tough! Take risks, and if things don’t pan out, who cares? You tried to do something! That’s all that matters! People worry about their egos or pride getting wounded, but why? How does that help you? Just do! Live in the now without handcuffs or bad glasses!

You only have the NOW to exist in, there is no past or future, only the now. The future is illusory until it happens, and when it happens it’s definitely different from your expectations, no matter how accurate or close it is. The past is illusory because once the now has past it’s forever gone, and you should take the lessons that you have learnt, don’t hold on to negative memories for they only weigh you down. What you don’t take with you on your deathbed doesn’t matter.  Just say NO and say NOW!