In this video I would like to speak about how we develop this habit of thinking about the future and the past. How we spend the entire day in unconscious thinking about the past or the future.
One of the main reasons for us to get into this kind of habit of only thinking about the past of the future is our conversations. Right from a small age our conversations our parents had with us, the conversations we had in school, college, at the work place. When we were small we were always told we had to become something, so we had to study to become something or we were notified about exams that were there in the future.
Our parents never spoke to us about the concepts called the ‘Now’. It was always about what is coming up two weeks later, what is coming up one month later. What happened two weeks earlier, how we behaved one month earlier, whose birthday is coming up, how we need to dress to that party, how did somebody dress in the friends party that was held two weeks earlier or how badly they were dressed or how badly they were behaving.
This is usually the chatter that happens in families. The chatter is all about the future or the past. No one is ever talking about the present moment. There is no emphasis on anything about the present. There is no concept as the now which is given importance to, it is always the future and the past.
Even with our friends it is a normal thing. Conversations cannot happen if we do not engage the future in it or the past in it. So this thing is very normal to continuously be thinking about the future or the past and then we get into this cycle of constantly thinking of everything but the present moment.
What we need to be doing now.. that is out of the window. We never even give thought to that, and that is where all our life is unfolding, it is in the present moment, it is in the ‘Now’. All our thought are arising in the now and we do not even know it, we do not even want to acknowledge it. So communication does play a big role in developing this habit of continuously thinking about the future or the past.
Another medium which is also very influential and is another motivator to this habit is material that we read. Usually the newspapers, the magazines, the movie reviews, online blogs about people, specially review blogs about products that we released two weeks earlier, products that are going to be released one week ahead.
We read about film stars, movie stars in magazines. Write ups about the parties that they attended one week earlier or what they has worn that day and what movies they have in store coming out in the future. The news and the newspaper tells us everything that happened yesterday or maybe two days earlier.
Or some advertisement of something that is in the future. So our entire life is only focused on the future and the past. We are only exposed to this kind of material. So naturally our mind is going to pick up this kind of thinking.
It is always consumed thinking about the future or the past. But what really matters is what we are doing right now. How are we designing our life right now. Are we creating happiness right now, because if we are creating happiness right now we do not have to worry about a happy future.
But if it is the other way round, we are creating stress, anxiety, worry in the now with the hope of achieving something in the future, you know exactly what is going to happen in the future. It is going to be the exact replica of our present moment.
So I would advise practicing bringing this now in your consciousness everyday. Remind yourself again and again to come back to the now. It is important for us to think about the now. We want to detach ourselves from useless thinking of the future or the past.
So it is all about practice and creating a new habit, a new reminder of coming time and again back into the now. Finding yourself in the now, living in the now, doing things in the now, even though talking about the now is not possible every time, it is important to be grounded in the now while talking so that our mind is trained to derive its sense of self from the now itself.
Practicing self awareness helps you in staying grounded in the now.
It is not very difficult to be in the now. It is one of the simplest things, and the minute your consciousness is about the now, you feel free and you feel calm, you feel as if a lot of weight has been taken of you, you feel light and you can work more effectively, you can plan
things better and you can design a beautiful future in any field you choose.
I thank you for visiting my website, please help me out by sharing the content on your social networks so that the word can go around. — Neil Azavedo
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