What we fail to realize is that what we wanna be we have to be and as we be we are being, patiently.
from Patience #SometimesICry
Let me start by saying that reading is fundamental. The majority of my lessons this year have come from books rather than experience because COVID but it’s absolutely true what they say- if you wanna hide something put it in a book.
The book that has brought me the most insight this year is the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Literally, the first pages set everything else I read this year in line and I was so taken away I’ve been giddy ever since. Now I won’t act like I learned something new from this book, most spiritual books all say the same thing. Yet the way that Eckhart breaks things down is something that makes sense to me. It’s simple and not complex, as we are usually moved to think everything is. I’m gonna try to summarize some of the keys I’ve gotten so far to show you why I’ve just gotten a well-deserved southpaw in my stomach from gratitude.
So check it, first forget definitions you have about things and imagine this is the first time you’re ever hearing about these things. We understand things from our perspective and we try to make things make sense based on what we know. Imagine what we know is incomplete and we these are missing pieces.
So boom, I’m not gonna try and explain exactly what he said, you gotta read the book, but I will try to relay my interpretation. Basically, we live life as our mind rather than ourselves. If we were our thoughts we wouldn’t be able to recognize them. If we were our emotions we wouldn’t be able to feel them. Our thoughts are our mind-body and our emotions are our feeling body or the body’s reaction to our thoughts.
Our mind is in control because we are always thinking. The mind’s goal is to remove pain, which is the worst emotion for the feeling body. It’s greatest achievement is covering pain, either with the past or the future.
To identify with your [thoughts] is to be trapped in time.
Eckart Tolle
This is why so many of us are suffering from depression and anxiety. Enlightenment is the ending of suffering. Recognizing that depression is living in your memories and anxiety is living in anticipation. The key to ending all this is living in the now, in the present. Past creates your identity now and future equates to some form of salvation or fulfillment.
Read the book fam, I can’t do my man’s justice. What he did for me though was made me realize just how much I had given my life over to my mind. A year ago I created this blog with the idea “control your thoughts, control your life” and was nowhere near this framework of understanding. I had the idea but not the action that made the idea real. When you let your mind control “life’s journey is no longer an adventure just an obsessive need to arrive, to obtain, to make it.” It’s sickening yo, like really thinking about how life never feels like enough and it feels like there is so much pressure from everywhere.
Cue gut check cuz baby if you focus on the now, if you remain in the present, you’re literally living a whole new life. There are no problems, only situations that must be dealt with or accepted. Gratitude is the key for me to changing my course of thinking and focusing more on the now. When I watch my thoughts, they are mean and I understand why, but they are not me. I am love. I am kindness. I am beauty. Yet when I identify with my thoughts I’m a beast, literally. When I watch my feelings, I realize that I am ignoring what I want and my body is reacting to me letting my mind control. Whatever you think you feel, your body will tell you the truth. We have to watch our mind and our body to really know ourselves.
Gratitude is the quality of being thankful or readiness to show appreciation. To help me stay in the now I practice expressing what I am grateful for. Now it’s only been four days, but it’s been extremely helpful in maintaining joy and peace in my life. When I get in my head or let my mind control, I immediately bring myself back to the present by expressing gratitude for the now, what I’m experiencing, what I’m feeling, what I’m seeing, what I’m hearing. I can’t be depressed and anxious and grateful all right now or at the exact same moment. So if I focus on gratitude, it’s always a great, amazing, beautiful life. I am grateful for being, and all that comes with being. I am thankful that I am still able to experience the now and recognize it and appreciate it. Hard to be grateful and pissy 🤷🏾♀️
What y’all think? Is time real? Is life nothing more than just repeated nows? Let me know in the comments and thank you so much for joining me along my journey. 🖤❤💚
B✊🏾