Do you resist the present moment?
BY JANANI RAVIKUMAR
“Stress is caused by being here, but wanting to be there – Ekhart Tolle.”
When I was crippled by intense anxiety and did not know how to heal it, I was reminded of this quote by Ekhart Tolle. I went within and introspected within myself to understand what I wanted and where I was. And then I realised that I had a rosy picture of my life in my mind – of my family, my career and what I wanted from life. However, the reality of the situation was extremely different from this beautiful picture, infact it was just the opposite! I then realised that I was unconsciously comparing the real picture with my dream picture, and that caused all my stress and anxiety. The anxiety to get to where I wanted to be, and unable to accept the present moment as it was.
Do you also resist the present moment as it is? Perhaps the present moment is not giving you what you want from life and this is distressing you now. But let’s say, you want to move to the goal that you have set for yourself in future. The road to that goal is the road in the present moment. And if you constantly litter this road with stones and thorns, how would you ever get to where you want to be? The stones and thorns that I refer to here are your own negativity and non-acceptance to the present moment.
Therefore look within yourself now. Can you notice any kind of stress or pain in your body? This could be anything – anxiety, sadness, anger, or even a small irritation. All these are different forms of pain and denote that there is resistance in you to what the current situation is offering you. Can you now surrender to this present moment and drop your resistance? Surrendering to the present moment is not easy, but it is vital to your spiritual growth in the journey of your life. It means totally accepting this moment as though you have chosen it yourself. It means releasing all your expectations or dream pictures from your life and solely focusing on giving your best to this moment. As this moment is all you have right now, and utilizing this moment well will be your only hope to salvation or the end of your suffering. In other words, can we move forward towards our goals in peace and harmony, and not in negativity and stress?
The more you drop your expectations and accept the present moment as it is, amazingly the circumstances around you will also respond in a very positive way, sooner or later. Second, when you drop your resistance, you are more calm inside, therefore you are armed with a clear mind and a peaceful heart as you march towards your goals. Equipped with these, you can release yourself out of any unpleasant situation successfully. Perhaps you are unable to resolve the issue or problem. In this case, why not use this problem to go deeper within ourselves and surrender from within? Either way, you are peaceful and so external issues fail to shake you too much anymore.
One way to do this is to express gratitude frequently, for whatever comes to you, no matter good or bad. The other way to do it is to take a resolve to provide service with love to the present moment without bothering about future consequences or results. This is also the essence of the Bhagavad Gita, wherein Lord Krishna teaches us to perform actions without any thought about the fruits of those actions. This is in essence karma yoga in its real form. Can we try this for at least a moment now and see if it works?