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Live In The Present
Everything you think and feel reflects who you are. If you think and feel from a superficial level of awareness, that is who you are. To dive deeper into yourself and, hopefully, to get to that place where you are love, compassion, trust, and truth, you have to follow the path of your present responses.
Someone who feels unloved can still find love in its purest form, but he will have to work through the layers of resistance that block the feeling of pure love. Your present emotions reflect the present state of your nervous system with all its past imprints.
Whenever you have an experience, these imprints enter into your response, which means that most of your reactions are echoes from the past. You do not really live in the present.
However, at least you are reacting in the present, and that is where the search for your true self begins. Your emotions are the most present-centered thing you have. An emotion is a thought linked to a sensation. The thought is usually about the past or the future, but the sensation is in the present.
Your mind quickly links sensations with thoughts, but when we were infants, our first experience and emotions were much closer to physical sensations. We had no inhibitions or second thoughts about crying when we were wet, cold, lonely, frightened, etc. Our minds didn’t know those powerful words bad and no. Bad teaches you that certain thoughts are shameful; no teaches you to resist your own impulses.
More complex words and interpretations came later. As adults, when we deny ourselves the immediate experience of an emotion, a screen of words is out up by the mind, and this throws us out of the present and into either the past or the future. To feel an emotion fully and completely, to experience it and then release it, is to be in the present, the only moment that never ages.
Adapted from Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, by Deepak Chopra (Three Rivers Press, 1998).
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15 comments
add your comment »Yes Ron that is the perfect essence of it. So satisfying and oddly reassuring to hear. It leaves a feeling of freshness. Thank you.
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We should not be attached to any emotion; because realities can change in an instant. Appreciate the emotion that we have and then move on.
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Why let go of an emotion if it is a good one?
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Most of all, live in the present moment make me feel like a tranquil mind which leads me to the world free of anger,greed & stupor.It is peaceful!
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Deepak,
Excellent post! It goes along with my fav quote, "Your perception is your reality".
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Dixon,
You almost have it.....almost. Now, when you get your bible from in front of your eyes and truly look around, perhaps then you will see.
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Dixon, not all of us believe in Jesus. Enlightment comes when you acknowledge and respect everybody's beliefs. To me that is truly living in the present... Respect to all and ourselves.
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If ANYONE can grasp what is being said in this article...Congratulations! You are way ahead of the game. If you don't but have an open mind, you too are to be congratulated. That's how we learn and that is how we get to pick and chose the next steps on our path. (I know some people think that they are just dancing around in their skin and God pulls strings and dictates the next move but I think we have a partnership with the Creative Intelligence so every step is not choreographed for us but rather with us. We are free to chose and we are free to expereince what those choices bring us.)
Dixon, I don't know why you torture yourself with reading Deepak's stuff since you hate everything he writes. But it is none of my businees why.
(Now THAT feels more peaceful) chuckle
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i love to reed your posts Deepak! they fulfill my day.
thanks, B.
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DEAR ALL...
VERY INSIGHTFUL...
BEST WISHES...
GERSHON...
PS TEACHES US NOT TO INTELLECTUALIZE OUR FEELINGS...
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