Research now supports that the quality of your experience right here and right now impacts and predicts how you will feel in the future. This means that the day is sufficient unto itself and that Scarlett O’Hara was onto something when she sighed, tossed her glossy black ringlets and said, “Oh fiddle dee-dee, Rhett, I’ll worry about that tomorrow.” As you sort out today, tomorrow takes care of itself. As you free yourself from worrying about your future, you’re more able to inhabit the present moment and paradoxically almost guarantee that your future, as created by the calm and present moment focused mind of today, will be more glorious then anything you could have worried yourself into.
The best way to begin to sort out today is to ground yourself in present moment awareness. The part of you that knows you’re breathing, thinking, feeling, and existing is your awareness. Connecting more fully to your present moment awareness doesn’t have to be hard or complicated; it isn’t a mental exercise. In fact, too much thinking actually interferes with your ability to just be present.
A practical way to be present and relinquish your need to control the future comes from Eckhart Tolle’s spiritual best-selling book, The Power of Now. In it, he advises that you use your body as a portal, or way in, to your present moment awareness. The exercise is simply to keep a portion of your attention, your awareness, directed inward. You do this by getting a subtle sense of your energy body, allowing yourself to feel your body from within. Tolle writes:
Is your body alive? Is there life in your hands, arms, legs and feet – in your abdomen and chest? Can you feel the subtle energy field that pervades the entire body and gives vibrant life to every cell? Can you feel it simultaneously in all parts of the body as a single field of energy? Keep focusing on the feeling of your inner body for a few moments. Don’t start to think about it, feel it.
By practicing in this way, you’re cultivating a seamless continuation of awareness, a greater ability to be in the present moment of your life. Buddhist monk and beloved meditation teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, makes it clear why this is so important, in his poem, A Dishwasher’s Guide to Life: He writes:
While washing the dishes, one should only be washing the dishes. If while washing dishes we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we’re not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. The fact that we are here washing these bowls is a wondrous reality, a miracle of life.
