Lifted from the internet, creator unknown…
There is no “there” dude, only here, right now…
There is no there, only here, right now.
Only this moment, which is roughly 90 seconds long.
This, here, right now, is all there is.
String 3 of these “moments” together, and you’ve got the working “present” that is actually “Real.” Everything happens in these 5 minutes here and now.
Except for your attention, your focus.
Next Tuesday is never going to exist, it will always be next Tuesday, until it becomes the day after tomorrow, then it becomes tomorrow, then it becomes today.
But next Tuesday will happen.
Last Friday never existed, it was a “right here, right now” that came and went, once it did, we renamed it, in order to make the recalling of memories that happened on that day more fluid.
The point of this isn’t to riddle or puzzle over for the sake of doing so.
The point of this is to draw your attention back to something you already know, something that is so obvious that it’s easy to take for granted.
Especially since our lives are so crammed full of people to do and things to see, trophies to acquire, accomplishments to achieve… and whatever else you think/feel you’re here to do.
We have an experience and then tell ourselves and others about it (what it means... to us, for us, and about us).
Which informs us about how it was, how it is, and how it’s going to be.
If we only understood what we were actually doing and exactly how it works.
***
Playing With Consciousness (PWC)
Initiation Issue 1 of 6.
There is only here, right now.
Are you going to be here or not?
One of the interesting things about being conscious is the ability to project that “awareness” to a potential time in the future or a memory or experience that has already come to pass…
Interesting in many ways…
Useful in some, problematic in others…
depending on how we use it, what we use it for, and our ability to direct it… our conscious awareness is the only way to override our programs.
By the time we’re in our 30’s, we spend somewhere around 95% of our waking days executing on programs.
Expertly rehearsed coping mechanisms we’ve developed in order to deal with our experience of the world and being in it.
The above is stated, translated, considered, debated, and pondered in various ways…
all usually resulting in the notion that upwards of 95% of what goes on in your brain does so below your conscious awareness…
in your subconscious mind.
***
Pattern-seeking…
Meaning-making…
Automation running machines.
Another way to say that is, up to 95% of the time you are being automated. And these automations aren’t simply for keeping your heart beating, your lungs expanding and contracting, your digestion doing its thing…
You are a system of systems operating within a system. Some of those “systems” are the way you tend to think about things, the way you tend you feel, the way you tend to respond, react… the way you tend to be…
You’re thinking.
What you think about.
How you think about those things.
What it feels like to be you.
How recognizing that feels…
You’ve automated all of that and done such a great job of it that that’s who you think you are… the you that you’ve become.
Here you are, in this present moment, to one degree or another, presently aware…
And at the same time, right here, right now, a percentage of your awareness is on all manner of other things. Some of it is good, some of it is neutral, and some of it is shit.
Nonetheless, no matter how present and aware you are in this very moment, many of the other moments throughout your day you are, in fact, unconsciously thinking, feeling, and doing…
thoughts, feelings, and actions that may or may not be getting you what you want.
You are thinking, feeling, and acting (or not) the way you have learned how to be. You do that all unconsciously.
And, you’re an expert at it… being the way you become.
***
Right here. Right now. In this moment.
You can, if you choose to, direct your thinking, manage your feeling, and act on that or not.
The only thing that exists is right here, right now… and everything there is, is in it.
Are you going to be here or not?
Are you going to be “there” worrying, considering, and pondering about what may happen and all the possible what-ifs that are associated with it?
Are you going to be “there” recalling things that have already occurred, using your preferred version of those events to elicit a certain type of feeling?
Or, are you going to be here, present, intentionally creating what you want?
It’s a choice dude, and no, you don’t have the attention span of a goldfish.
Better put, your attention doesn’t have to be that of a goldfish.
You can in fact take control over, be in charge of, and take ownership of who you are being and how you are being.
However, without learning how to be here, now, your efforts with all this shelf-help pers-dev stuff with be lacking in the effectiveness and efficiency department.
I don’t know about you, but if/when I want something in my experience to be different, I want that change to happen as fast as possible.
I want it changed now, “Not tomorrow, Not after breakfast, NOW!”
***
The secret is the present.
The present is the doorway.
The doorway of the present and learning how to be in it (the present) is fundamental, it’s the wax-on wax-off “move” we must learn in order to rearrange our experience and our being in it (the present) in order to be effective and efficient at getting what we want…
the creating of our reality…
Our reality is the reflection of who and what we’ve been being. Yes, other people and circumstances play into that as well, we’ll learn how to deal with (manage it) that later.
For now, the whole point is this.
IT is right now, even if you’ve been working on being present, you are mostly executing on previously rehearsed ways of being…
and when you’re not fully present, dictating how you’re being, you’re running old automations, old programs that are at best, mediocre at getting you what you want.
That is, unless you’re getting exactly what you want and wouldn’t change a thing, even if you could.
***
If you could, would you?
…change something about your experience.
It’s now dude, can you learn how to be here or not?
If you can, will you?
It’s simply a perspective, most of us drive down the highway of life lost in the rearview mirror or white-knuckling it about what might be around the next corner…
Speaking of which, Next week: Perspective is everything.
PS. Used to seeing something extra down here?
Where we’re headed:
Perspective is everything.
It’s all about communication.
Context matters most.
You’re already doing “IT.”
If you only knew exactly what you were doing and how that actually works…
On getting what you want… and what that even is.