Transcript
Today we are going to talk about entering your Inner Peace, which is the state you enter when your are aligned or become the Integrated Self. There are different ways of focusing that enable this, and one of these is the Practice of being Present.
You may wonder how being present in the current moment is a way in which you can sync up with your Inner Peace, so let’s unpack that a bit.
For most people who are experiencing unwanted emotions, the roots of these emotions sit in thoughts relating to the past or the future. For example, feeling regret in this moment thinking about past events, and how you should have acted, or what you should have said. Or perhaps feeling anger now relating to something that someone said or did to you in the past. Leaving yourself in these emotional states means that you are taking away the power that you have in this moment. When you think of your focus as energy, then you can see how placing your focus on something that is in the past, something that you cannot change, not only activates and energises an unwanted emotional state, but also disempowers you in the present moment.
You would think that when you show people how a past event is not serving them, and is in fact taking them in a direction in opposition of who they want to be, and who they truly are, they want to get to work on changing their lives for the better. That’s often not what happens, though. Instead, they often rebel against the notion of letting go of the past pain. And if that is you, you need to ask yourself *why* you perpetuate the thought patterns that keep you tied to those past events. In most cases the reason is that someone is primarily associating with the avatar in those moments. The avatar bases its identity on events both future and past, the opinions of others, physical possessions, and accolades. Therefore, anything that threatens the identity of the avatar, be it beneficial for its wellbeing or not, is often met with resistance. This is its defence mechanism.
Similar to past events, someone can also be focusing on future events in a way that disempowers them in the moment. This is normally when someone is concerned, worried or anxious about something in the future. For example, you may have heard rumours about a restructuring at your workplace that may or may not happen next year, and by focusing on all the possible negative outcomes that may come from the restructuring, you disempower yourself now for something that may never even happen, or something that may even present a lot of opportunities for you. But if you are not synced up to your Inner Peace and therefore empowered in the current and following moments, then you do not position yourself to view the situation from the perspective of the Integrated Self. That means that you do not position yourself to be receptive to other opportunities or outcomes that are aligned to your true desires. And since you have no power in a future moment, only in the current moment, the best way to influence and direct your future is to be empowered in the current moment, and in as many of the moments leading one after the other into the future.
Of course you can focus on aspects of the past or the future which actually help to align you with your Inner Peace and therefore serve to empower you in this moment. But because old, unwanted, energised thought patterns have quite a pull, it is often beneficial to shift your awareness and your focus to the current moment, as that means not focusing on those thoughts from the past and future which may take you away from your Inner Peace.
And with increased awareness in the current moment, you increasingly start to feel the Self flowing through the avatar. That has the effect of reducing the resistance that comes from focusing on those things which are not in sync with your Inner Peace. That is the true value of the Practice of being Present.
So how do you shift awareness to the present moment?
There are a number of things that you can focus on which all support focusing on the present moment. As you can imagine, it involves focusing not only on things that are present in this moment, but also not introducing any kind of resistance, which also keeps you away from your Inner Peace. That means that focusing on neutral things or things which you respond to with a positive emotional state are the things that you want to focus on. As an example, let’s say that you are sitting in traffic. You can think that you are ‘present’ by focusing on the here and now where you are sitting in traffic, but if your thoughts about it cause you to become frustrated or angry, then it is not helping you to sync up to your Inner Peace. Instead, you can focus on a song that’s playing on the radio that you like, or you can focus on the bird flying past, or the beautiful hills in the background, or the interesting clouds in the sky, or the wonderfully warm feeling of the sun on your skin, or even just on your breath, which reminds you that you are here as Consciousness expressing through this form; all of this without introducing resistance to the present moment. So you are not denying the fact that you are sitting in traffic, you are not denying reality, but you have no unwanted emotional attachment to it, because you are directing your thoughts. You are not fighting against the circumstances of the present moment. You simply are.
And simply being is what being present in the moment is all about. That is how you empower your now.
Until next time, take care and remember to be kind to yourself.