Being in The Present Moment

Modern Life and the Time Crunch

One of the characteristics of modern life seems to be the ever-increasing rate at which we are moving, a rat-race of which we find ourselves a part of. Most of us, today, crib about lacking time. We are too busy (read terminally busy) to have enough time to do what we want to do or when we want to do. “I wish I had a few extra hours” is a common refrain. But what we need to think about is, if the time is really short for us or if we are not able to manage time.

Time Management for Success

Everybody on the planet gets 24 hours a day but how one utilizes those hours differs from person to person. Almost all successful people place a very high value on their time and they continually work at becoming better organized and more efficient. As an administrator, one needs excellent time management skills to not only avoid disorganization and disarray at his workplace but also to have a career marked with high achievement and success. An administrator has a lot of actions to perform on a daily basis but unfortunately, most administrators face the challenge of managing time well. The reasons could be many.

Shuttling Between Past and Future

Generally speaking, in our relationship with time, we compulsively pick over the past in order to learn lessons from it, and then project into a hypothetical future in which those lessons can be applied. In this shuttling between the past and the future, often the present moment slips by without our realizing so.

The fact of the matter is neither the past exists nor the future. These two exist only in our minds. There lies tremendous power in the ‘present’ which exists between a vast past and an infinite future.

No wonder the book The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 30 foreign languages. Tolle wrote, “Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry – all forms of fear are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past and not enough presence”. To gain this power of the present, one has to be consciously there in the present moment or else the moment is gone before you even realize it.

Tug of War – Past vs. Future

The past and future are merely reference points to understand what we have learned and where we can take it. They never meet; they never cross each other’s way. Past is that which is no more, and future is that which is not yet. Both are non-existential. But often people get stuck in the past events –good, bad, ugly – thereby unconsciously empowering them to influence the present.

Unable to let go of the past bad experiences and worrying about the future, we are thus creating those same experiences ahead.

The Power of the Present Moment

The present is where we are, the central and the neutral space. Henry David Thoreau said, “The meeting of two eternities, the past and future…is precisely the present moment.” Understanding what it is to be in the present moment becomes easier when we understand what it means to not be present, since this is the state we have become habitual of.

When you aren’t being present, you become a victim of time.

We tend to live our lives on a very superficial level. Our mind is pulled into the past or the future, or both. We move from one scene of life to another – eating, watching television, getting married, changing jobs, buying a new car or house, etc., without ever stopping. Of course, it’s natural to spend moments of thought in the past or thinking or planning for the future. Identifying impending dangers through associations with things that have happened in the past is important for self-preservation. There may be times when an administrator needs to think something through — perhaps a business decision, retirement planning, or how to communicate his feelings and desires to his office staff. But when our lives become dictated by thoughts and emotions attached to past events and potential future outcomes, standing peacefully rooted in the present becomes increasingly rare.

How to Know If You Are in the Moment?

So, how do you know if you are in the moment? It’s simple – if you are aware of your thoughts and emotions, then you are present and in the moment. If you create what you want now, you’ll naturally move into a future of what you want.

Benefits of Being in the Present Moment

• Using the Moment Wisely: You’ll use the moment wisely with precision and intention to get what you want. Only awareness can do that. If you want life to be different in the future, then the time to act consciously is NOW.

• Living in Constant Joy: You live in a constant state of joy when you’re in the moment. This is because in the ‘now’ your old emotions, dislikes, and problems cease to exist – they cannot exist.

• Caring for Yourself: You care for yourself. You decide what is good for you in the ‘now’. You won’t blindly do what others do, you won’t do what they think is good for you or feel that you must do to impress others – friends, seniors, subordinates, bosses, or colleagues.

• Achieving More in Your Day: You achieve more in your day because being in the moment actually saves time. When we are in the present, the mind is calm and one’s efficiency increases.

• Never Getting Tired: You’ll never get tired when you are in the present moment as you only have one thing to deal with.

• Freedom in the ‘Now’: You are free in the ‘now’. In the past or future, we fear what others think of us and their opinions are important to us. But in the ‘now’ none of that matters – we allow others to think what they want, be what they want – and we allow it for ourselves too.

• Open-Minded and Humble: You are open-minded and humble. When new information arrives and you’re in the ‘now’ it’s exciting and like an adventure. A closed mind comes from fear and fear lives in the past.

Being in the Present Moment through Rajyoga

Rajyoga attends to all aspects of our being – body, mind, emotions, and the Inner Self. Awareness of self establishes you in the present moment without our skating across the surface of life. It lets us be in touch with the core. Ideally, the thoughts that run in the mind should be exactly those that I would like and I want. We do exert this control, that we possess, over our thoughts, but it is not complete and it is only occasionally.

The more we become completely engrossed in our daily routine, the more our thoughts tend to become reactions to what goes on outside us. That’s when they go out of control and our lives move in an unfocused way.

As a result, things don’t work out as we might have desired. Then we develop a habit of blaming other people and circumstances, or we justify our pain by telling ourselves we are not very worthy or powerful enough. Often, these two inner strategies go together.