Do you spend a lot of time replaying old records in your head? What you’ve done ‘wrong’ or how others have wronged you? Do you find yourself telling others only things that have happened in the past?
Do you notice how others may recall a story differently about the same event? How you lived something may not be how another lived in who was right next to you. That is because it is only what we felt that remains and often that feeling creates a memory that has little to do with the truth of the event. In fact we tend to dramatize it over time in our minds. And at this point in your life all of your memories may not even be real, but constructs from your initial feeling. In other words, the past is not real.
The only thing that is real is this moment right now. Feel it, breathe it in, enjoy it, there will not be another like it. If you are living anywhere but the present in your mind, you are recreating pain and anxiety for something that does not really exist. Focus back in on the present anytime those records play. Look at a tree, or touch your own skin. Feel the reality of the here and now. It will train your mind over time to be mindful of what is important – today!
