Know How is the Time and the compulsion to overthink

 

Know How is the Time and the compulsion to overthink

There is a direct relationship between believing that the past and future are relevant to your current levels of peace, happiness, love and success and the compulsion to overthink.

If you believe that you need to resolve all the ‘bad’ things that have happened in your life to date, then you will feel compelled to think at length about past memories. Similarly, if you believe that you need to have a better future so you can feel good then, again, you can find yourself needing to engage your mind anytime it presents thoughts about the future, and thinking, for example

What if I run out of money?

• What if my body never heals?

• What if I never meet anyone?

• What if I’m stuck with this person forever?

Remember, we have a problem anytime we judge and resist ‘what is’. Entering the past and future presents your mind with infinite opportunities to judge and resist what’s happened in the past or might happen in the future. You can find yourself trapped in judging and resisting made-up future possibilities that haven’t even happened. It’s such a waste of time! To enjoy mind calm it is vital to accept that whatever’s happened in your past or might happen in your future need not have any impact on your current levels of peace.

The only time that you can experience mind calm is now.

When you learn how to be here now, tapping into the inner reservoir of goodness that resides within your current conscious awareness, the lure of leaving your calm consciousness to go into some imagined story in your mind diminishes naturally. You see clearly that now is the only moment you can ever experience clarity, contentment and connection. When you leave now, it feels flat compared to the aliveness of the magnificent moment you are always in.

Quick cure: Reality Check

Escaping the Time Trap involves turning your attention towards now. I’m going to share many ways to do this with you, but one of the simplest is what I like to call having a Reality Check.

Right now, as you read these words, take a moment to notice what you can see - colours, shapes, objects, etc. Now notice what you can hear. Better still, listen for a sound that’s been happening but you haven’t noticed previously. What sounds can you find in your immediate locality? In order to hear them you need to be really attentive, and thus present. Now, notice what you are physically touching, including the book (or reading device) in your hands, the pressure between your backside and the seat or your feet pressing against the ground.

What can you smell or even taste, right now? Totally tune in and have a Reality Check into the immediate here and now.

For a few moments aim to do nothing except be attentive to whatever is being presented to you right now. When doing this, you may notice that your mind becomes stiller.

Especially when you give all your attention to what you can see, hear, feel, smell and taste. It can also be fun to see how, in order to re-engage any thoughts, you have to take your attention away from this moment. You will discover later just how important it is to see that shift of attention but, for now, I want to finish this section on the Time Trap by sharing a few words on how to live with time, without being trapped in your mind by it.

Be now and Be here 

Be aware and Be happiness