You can't live a positive life with a negative mind
For me, the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, helped to see what was going on in my mind and shake off the fear. The book is an excellent spiritual guide & aims to help us find 'enlightenment'. I find that word to be so loaded, almost off-putting in how much weight it carries & how intimidating it seems to be able to achieve it. Instead of enlightenment, it can be easier to think of this state of being as 'Presence'. [To be present and grateful and free of pain.] I've learnt that it's not about being overly 'hippie-dippie', forgetting about life and responsibilities and becoming this ethereal fairy-person that has no worries at all. It's about observing the mind...
"It is not a trancelike state. Not at all. There is no loss of consciousness here. The opposite is the case. If the price of peace were a lowering of your consciousness, and the price of stillness a lack of vitality and alertness, then they would not be worth having. In this state of inner connectedness, you are much more alert, more awake than in the mind-identified state. You are fully present. It also raises the vibrational frequency of the energy field that gives life to the physical body."
The book centers around how time is not precious at all, because it is an illusion and we need to free our minds to be liberated. Hang on, I know it's a big statement and you're apprehensive - think about this: Every moment that we are alive, we are using our minds to interpret our surroundings; the things that are happening around us, what happened a minute ago, what may happen in 10 minutes, what we watched on TV last night, that dinner we agreed to last week, tomorrow's list of chores and whether the weather is going to hold out. Every moment that we are alive, we're thinking about what's next & what was, but actually there is no time, there is only now. We should be present, Eckhart lectures, because that is true freedom.
"The present moment holds the key to liberation. But you cannot find the present moment as long as you are your mind."
Now, I’ll try not to butcher the book for you, but I will try to explain what Eckhart means by observing our minds. If we are able to sit still, and be cognizant of our thoughts, let them pass by unjudged, if we can just observe but not react immediately, we can become watchers of our own minds. We can be mindful of the thoughts that pop into our heads, observe them, take a minute before we respond to them, and in that way, we can learn which thoughts are destructive. We can learn to laugh at the horrible stories we make up in our minds about how awkward that job interview was, or how worried we are that our mom-in-law doesn't like us. Because every single thought is in your head, and of your conjuring. Your thoughts and emotions are of your making. You create your world in your head, the one you can choose to live in, or observe if you're lucky, or ricochet between the two if you're normal.
The world outside of us is just energy. It's made up of things: things of nature, things of man, things of God; oceans and buildings and human beings scattered far & wide trying to figure out what it all means. It is the common human condition to try to make sense of things. To examine, take apart, analyze, reassemble & theorize. Presence is to recognize that everything is energy and that our only purpose in life is to Be. It is one way (perhaps the most efficient) to make happiness a reality. This way, we are free of pain. Whatever has happened, happened. Whatever will be, will be. Now is everything.
Sure, you've got a hand in crafting your fate, but wouldn't it be easier if you were just so overwhelmingly grateful for this moment right here? That you can read this, that you can interpret, that you can opine, that you are alive? Imagine we could live every moment with big, grateful hearts instead of over-worked, sick brains... so thankful that our every move embodies the gratitude we feel. Eckart's Power of Now taught me that all the stories you conjure up in your mind about various situations are actually not real at all. They're only in your head. Your pain & fear & ego are all in the mind, not the physical world.
Every day, I practice remembering that. I practice watching some of the more disruptive thoughts that pop in. I do not give in to them because that energy will just breed more negativity, but I see them and I wonder about their origin; not in a sad way, rather curiously... Which makes me think how interesting it would be to learn more about shame and fear and where this conditioned way of thinking originated... A story for another day perhaps.
To end this off, one last excerpt from The Power of Now:
"You have probably come across "mad" people in the street incessantly talking or muttering to themselves. Well, that's not much different from what you and all other "normal" people do, except that you don't do it out loud. The voice comments, speculates, judges, compares, complains, likes, dislikes, and so on. The voice isn't necessarily relevant to the situation you find yourself in at the time; it may be reviving the recent or distant past or rehearsing or imagining possible future situations. Here it often imagines things going wrong and negative outcomes; this is called worry. Sometimes this soundtrack is accompanied by visual images or "mental movies." Even if the voice is relevant to the situation at hand, it will interpret it in terms of the past. This is because the voice belongs to your conditioned mind, which is the result of all your past history as well as of the collective cultural mind-set you inherited. So you see and judge the present through the eyes of the past and get a totally distorted view of it. It is not uncommon for the voice to be a person's own worst enemy. Many people live with a tormentor in their head that continuously attacks and punishes them and drains them of vital energy. It is the cause of untold misery and unhappiness, as well as of disease."
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