The power of being in the present moment.
One of the most curious things about being human is our strange relationship with time.
We're constantly rushing.
At one moment we're saying,
I don't have enough time to do everything that needs to be done,
And at the same time we're wishing time would hurry up so we don't have to put up with the grind of repetition.
And then,
Without warning,
We look up and realise ten years have passed and we're left wondering where the time went.
We live our lives caught between what has already happened and what we imagine might happen next.
We're rarely ever actually here.
The past is the memory in disguise.
We spend a lot of time looking backward,
Sometimes with longing,
You know,
The good old days,
Sometimes with pain,
Memories of hardship,
Loss or trauma.
But the past,
When you look at it,
Is nothing more than memory.
It doesn't matter whether it's ten years ago or ten seconds ago.
The past only exists as a mental recall,
And memory,
As convincing as it feels,
Is not nearly as reliable as we think.
Take something dramatic like a car accident.
You may believe you remember it with perfect clarity,
But every similar accident you see afterward,
Every movie scene,
Every story you hear,
Quietly reshapes that original memory.
Over time,
The memory can grow bigger,
Scarier,
And more distorted than the event itself.
Which also means something important.
Memories can be reinterpreted.
They can soften.
They can loosen their grip.
Trauma doesn't live in the past,
It lives in memory.
And memory lives in the mind.
The future.
Imagination wearing a serious face.
If the past is memory,
The future is imagination.
Sometimes we imagine a bright,
Joyful future.
Sometimes we imagine absolute catastrophe.
An upcoming exam,
Public speaking,
A bill that needs paying,
A social gathering we'd rather avoid.
The mind takes fragments of the past and projects them forward,
Creating anxiety in the present.
But notice this,
The future has never actually arrived.
It only exists as thought.
And yet,
We let these thoughts completely colour what's happening right now.
What is actually real?
When you strip it all back,
The true nature of reality is very simple.
There is only this moment.
Past and future,
No matter how real they feel,
Are stories the mind is telling.
To illustrate this,
I wrote a song,
And I'd like to read a few lines to you now,
If you'll allow me this small indulgence.
Here we go.
You know when you're in bed sleeping and you wake up from a dream?
How real did it seem?
How real did it seem?
As you lie there slowly blinking,
Realize it's just a dream.
How real does it seem?
How real does it seem?
Thoughts of the past may seem stronger.
You look around,
It's all you see.
How real is this dream?
And as you're planning for the future,
Somewhere deep inside this dream,
Can you see what I mean?
Do you feel the world is going slower?
Light gently waking from a dream,
Setting you free.
Now is all it's ever been.
Why the present feels uncomfortable.
Many people say the present moment feels boring.
There's no drama,
No problem to solve,
No injustice to complain about,
No exciting future event to prop us up.
The mind thrives on narrative.
It needs something to chew on.
Have you ever sat quietly with someone you like and noticed the urge to say something,
Anything,
Just to fill the silence?
The mind turns stillness into a problem.
It whispers,
This is awkward,
Do something,
Say something.
It convinces us that silence is a void that needs to be filled.
So we fill it with memory,
With imagination,
With noise.
But what if the silence isn't empty?
What if something far richer is waiting there?
Suffering and the hunger of the mind.
There's a deep link between suffering and the mind's obsession with time.
The mind is never satisfied.
Like the stomach,
It wants to feed.
But what it feeds on is information.
It believes,
If I can fix the past,
I'll be at peace.
If I can predict a happy future,
I'll finally relax.
We think justice will heal old wounds,
But justice at best offers a brief satisfaction.
Only forgiveness heals.
We can learn from the past,
But there is no guarantee the future will behave the same way.
And unless something truly dissolves inside us,
We may find ourselves reacting in exactly the same patterns again and again.
I've often caught myself getting frustrated with people thinking,
How do they not see this?
Only to realise they're doing the best they can with the tools they have.
And my frustration is mine.
Memory and imagination aren't enemies,
They're tools.
The question is,
Are you using the tool?
Or is the tool using you?
Discovering Space When you stop running,
Even briefly,
Something opens.
There is space.
Breath deepens.
The body softens.
Time seems to slow down.
Nothing magical is happening.
You're simply waking up from a nightmare and realising you're safe.
You can stop.
Put your feet on the ground.
If it feels safe,
Close your eyes.
And breathe.
The universe itself is always in a state of meditation.
Even in the busiest moments,
This quiet spacious presence is available.
Appointments may still exist.
Life still moves.
But beneath it all is a deep timeless stillness you can rest into at any moment.
In a moment,
I'll let the words fade and bring in a sound bath.
There's nothing you need to do,
Just listen.
And slowly coming back.
Thank you for spending this time with me.
I encourage you to stay curious.
Lean gently into the spaciousness.
Notice the quiet meditating universe that's always here.
Even when life feels busy,
You don't need to escape the present moment.
It's already holding you.
Until next time,
Take care and be gentle with yourself.
