Back from the future…
How much time do you spend in the present? Do you savor every moment and bask in the sense of being truly alive? Or do you drift onto autopilot and sleepwalk through your waking hours? Is the present moment something you’re trying to get away from - wishing time would pass quicker so you could get to the good stuff - to 5pm, to tomorrow, to the weekend, to the holidays?
And if you’ve been wishing your life away like that, where has all of that got you? Did you arrive in that magical ‘other’ place where the good times roll and nothing goes wrong? Nah, I didn't think so. But don’t worry, there’s a very good reason for that, AND you’re in pretty good company.
Most of us operate like this. Accidentally using the radical creativity of the mind to live either ahead of ourselves and or in the past. And to make matters even worse we project the illusion of permanence on top. On an intellectual level we know we’re going to die, but deep down we think we’re going to live forever. That means we take our life for granted - and our friends, family and everything else too.
We lose sense of what really matters and small problems become big obstacles. This idea turns this unhelpful tendency on its head, by fast-forwarding to the end of our life and looking back at the present from that perspective.
Imagine yourself on your deathbed at the very end of your life. It’s all behind you now and it’s literally the last day. Your body is weak and your breath is shallow. All you can do is lie there and wait for the end. And then suddenly you’re given the opportunity to come right back to this moment.
How would this moment look if you came back from the future like that? Wouldn’t you have a newfound appreciation for simply being alive in the here and now? Wouldn’t it be a pleasure to draw breath and to feel this moment in all its fullness and opportunity? Wouldn’t any problem in your life feel manageable and surmountable? And even if there was a problem that you genuinely couldn't solve, wouldn’t you be able to let go of it right away? Wouldn’t that naturally bring you into the state of the avatar, where you’re inhabiting your best self and seeing things in the best way?
If you’re going to use your mind to change time-frames, use it to go all the way to the end of your life and come back from the future like this. Use it today to see any problems in perspective. Use it to bring yourself to a state of gratitude. Use it to bring you into the here and now. It’s a one percent switch that utilizes a tendency you already have and it will elevate you above the line whenever you need it.
