We do these things in order to avoid the discomfort of our current experience and all its unknowns.
All that is surfacing personally and collectively, however, is par for the course, as it is time to dream, reach for and create a new narrative beyond the old ones that no longer work.
Our old narratives and ways of doing things can’t help us to create new ones, as we know. And neither can the thoughts and emotions that originate out of the old narratives that have rendered us very, very small and powerless help us.
New ways and approaches are required now.
We are needing to go from beliefs in separation, powerlessness, conquering and victimization into those based upon the holistic, multidimensional interconnectedness of all systems and the power at our fingertips, shown to us via leading-edge scientific, spiritual, biological, technological and cultural advances.
To bring forth the new narratives about who we are becoming and what we are doing here in our politics, science, spirituality, economics, culture, environments and more, we need to create and tell ourselves new stories about ourselves and about life.
One of the ways we can do this is by cultivating coming into the present moment, into the now. The place where we can look at our old stories, patterns and automatic-pilot tendencies, then choose to take conscious, more deliberate action, with fuller awareness of where such action will lead, along with its potentials and consequences.
We do this by mindfully being awake, aware, observant and curious in compassionate detachment of where we’re at and where we want to go.
We do this by taking full responsibility for where we are right now and staying out of blame (the nagging spouse, the corrupt politician or banker, the bad childhood, the boss that doesn’t pay you what you’re worth, God, karma, etc), so that we can look at what our circumstances are revealing to us and ultimately teaching us.
The value of being in the now and taking personal responsibility lies in their capacity to place us into the driver’s seat as to what we are going to choose to act upon from this moment forward, however unloving, challenging, ‘unfair’ and dark the current circumstances may be.
We gift ourselves with the power to do something about our circumstances by seeing them in another light.
They enable us to craft new stories and narratives by suspending and releasing the accustomed, outworn ones in favour of bigger pictures and other options. We thus enable ourselves to focus upon other potentials, agreements and thoughts that we simply cannot see when we are wearing the lenses of the past, or are stuck in the repeat-cycle of automatic-pilot.
They key us into states such as appreciation, peace, love, joy, wellbeing, abundance, compassion, optimism, freedom, passion, gratitude and more….all of which are extremely creative, healing, freeing and empowering in and of themselves.
In so doing, they honour but move us past the more primitive ‘fight or flight’, fear-based survival mechanisms sourced in the older parts of the brain that still form the foundation of many of those outworn cultural beliefs, politics, economics and ideologies.
*
Presence isn’t about ‘tuning out’ or just about feeling good: it is also an exit strategy out of old, outworn narratives, and a passport into new ones.
The more you choose to be present and here now, the more you can bypass that which inhibits and restricts you. No longer looking from the outside-in, you can open doors you never knew were there.
*
Make the choice to land into yourself and be present and see what vistas open to you.
Almost done…
We just sent you an email. Please click the link in the email to confirm your subscription!