Hello Friend!
When we're in a deep state of anxiety or depression, lost in our thoughts, future worries and past regrets - it can be REALLY difficult to pull ourselves into the here and now.
In fact, it can actually feel BAD and WRONG to try to bring ourselves to what's happening HERE. It can feel dangerous. Like we're going to miss something. Like if we don't continue beating ourselves up for what we did, or continue looking for all the things that COULD happen in the future - that we're setting ourselves up for pain and suffering.
Many spiritual and self help teachers preach the power of NOW. Of coming into our moment and being where we actually are. There is a lot of seeming magic attributed to being able to centre yourself on what's happening.
Now, some spiritual teachers/teachings DO take this idea of coming into the moment a little too far. They tell us that when we REALLY master being in the moment - that ALL of our pain will go away. That it's only ever in our MINDS wandering away from what IS that we suffer. We're told that to be in the here and now is to connect with reality - which is perfect - and therefore contains nothing painful.
Many of us have called B.S on this. Many of us have realized that trying to make ALL pain go away by essentially ignoring anything scary or painful from our past and future is a great way to simply exist in a dissociative state. Many of us have seen that trying to make ourselves believe that reality is always PERFECT is an exercise in self denial and gas lighting.
But the truth is, there IS power in learning how to orient to your moment. There IS usefulness in learning how to be present.
Today let's work through how we can use the idea of drawing ourselves into the moment to help us deal with chronic anxiety, worry, depression and other painful states of being, WITHOUT turning it into a tool of denial, suppression and pretending things are fine when they aren't.
Let's figure out how we can USE presence to PROCESS, and how we can use it to help ourselves come OUT of our heads and INTO the reality where we actually have POWER.
There's power in presence. Let's find it together.
<3
