Topic:   Living in the now, but planning for work and life

Ask the Author: Question and Response

	See Inspiring Video: The Present Moment

I have read parts of your website with great interest and completely agree that the need for your mind to take control of itself and not be ruled by learned and negative behaviors is the way forward.  What I would like to find out is that although we need to live in the now, in business and work we need to plan things out in our minds and use past experiences to shape our future dealings, and I think this is also necessary to some extent on a personal level or we never learn anything.  How can you suggest that we do this with positivity and not around our negative ego-based mindset?

Many thanks.

- John, United Kingdom

Consider releasing the preprogrammed concepts of positivity and negativity, for there are truly no such things. When you choose to define something as “negative” - that simply gives an illusion power over you. The illusion has no power unless you choose to give it power. It is the value that you place on something that gives it its power, not that something by itself. And it is what you value that will draw your energy to it, and thus what you will end up focusing on and experiencing.

The ego would love for you to think of it in negative terms. It would love this because this focus is what gives it its power. The more you focus on it, the more power you give the ego. The more power you give the ego, the more real you believe it to be. The more real you believe it to be, the more it becomes a greater part of your life. The greater part of your life it becomes, the more you unconsciously relate to it as being a part of you. The more you unconsciously relate to it as being a part of you, the more you start defending it and its thought system. Thus consider letting go of the idea of "our negative ego-based mindset" for that only gives the ego a power it does not inherently have. The ego is but a fairy tale whose only power comes from us. And when truth once again rains upon it - it will but melt away into the nothingness from which it came.

The present moment is the gift that you are offering yourself. The present moment gifts you an external view of your internal world. It allows you to see what you are supporting as real within your mind. How many times in the past has something “negative” happened to us, yet later through introspection we realize that the experience only helped us become more peaceful and wiser beings? And if that “negative” event assisted us in our growth, our self-realization, then wasn’t that “negative” event or experience actually a “positive” experience? Should we not be bowing in gratitude to our past self for the courage and fortitude it took to assist us in becoming who we are today? I know I am. I now know that when I look at my younger self, I am grateful for what he perceived he had to go through to assist him in becoming me. And now when I go through what he went through, instead of perceiving things in a “negative” light, I now simply smile, appreciate how the moment is manifesting itself, offer gratitude for the moment and move on. And because now, my present self smiles, I know that my future self will laugh at all I once took so seriously.

My dear friend, in the moment, do whatever you believe you need to do to experience peace of mind and joy. Nothing more than that is asked of you to experience peace of mind and joy. If your current support system asks you to plan and use past experiences to obtain peace, then do so. During your day, if you desire “positivity,” keep reminding yourself to stay present, and feel how what you are doing, thinking or perceiving is affecting your state of mind. If your result is peace of mind and joy, then know that you are experiencing and flowing in the moment. If judgment, stress, anger and/or regret appear, then the continuity and flow of the present moment will stop and you will feel it. Yet do not judge yourself, instead thank yourself for having caught yourself, then come back into the soul, correct the mind, offer forgiveness to yourself and others, offer gratitude, smile and continue to move forward.

The highest, best way for you, may be different than the highest, best way for another. And thus the uselessness of judgment. In fact, the only use judgment has is to experience it enough times to acknowledge its uselessness. Choose no longer to waste your energy in such a manner. For as long as you seek to verify your own experience by looking to see what is going on with other people, then all that is happening is that you are accepting their experiences as opposed to having the benefit of your own. Thus instead of comparing yourself to anyone else, compare the life you are experiencing to the life you truly desire to experience. This is the one and only self comparison that you ever need to make.

There is so much wisdom within you now that if you only got a glimpse of it you would chuckle at the idea of learning. When you accept your unification with the mind of God, you will discover it is a place that you have never left. All wisdom resides within you now. From this place, you will remember that there is nothing real you need to learn, and that actually what you are currently doing is trying to unlearn what has been programmed into you that is blocking your awareness to this realization.

The idea of planning or problem solving, the belief that you have something else to work on or another problem to solve, only focuses more of your attention and energy on the issue that you are trying to resolve or get rid of. This actually then has the opposite effect of what you are hoping to achieve, which is a state of peace. Yet I do not suggest that you ignore or resist it; rather engage in a process of looking at it, allow it to speak to you, take the actions that you need to take, and then let your thoughts of the issue pass away. Both focusing on AND resisting the problem acknowledges the power it has over you. Don’t allow the ego additional opportunities to throw fuel on the fire. Just deal with the problem in the way you believe will gift you peace, and then just let it go.

When you are thinking, perceiving, reacting, experiencing and creating beliefs, you are in a constant state of planning. And when, due to past projections or future imaginings, you are not available to the moment, then you miss what you have gone to all the effort of planning. What is the feeling that you wish to have from your experience? If you desire positivity, then stay on the road to positivity. When the thought of judgment enters your mind, choose to no longer play the ego’s game. Instead, forgive and pray for your brother and sister with the knowledge that all of their actions come from a place of love or from a place of calling for love. When a child is calling for love, do you judge the child or do you comfort the child? When the thought of anger comes, choose not to play the ego’s game, for haven’t we all played that game long enough? Instead, offer gratitude; gratitude because you are allowing yourself to see where through your own reactive thoughts you are taking yourself. No longer choose to invest time where there is no opportunity for growth. When the ego demands you to stress over a situation, choose instead to trust God’s plan for you, for He knows what your highest will for yourself is, and He knows that you will be alright. Simply trust Him until you learn to trust yourself. He simply holds the lantern until you rediscover your own light.

Understand there are innumerable ego-based patterns. One of those patterns says that goals are valuable, and that an individual is measured by attaining the goals he has set. Setting goals focuses your attention on expectations, and expectations are one of the greatest barriers to being available in the present moment. The act of planning, on a deeper level, is the search for certainty, safety and security. The external act of planning comes from the internal desire for peace. And a state of peace results from having trust in yourself. Trust yourself. Trust what it is you are bringing to yourself. Trust creates a greater feeling of safety and security, which then allows you to surrender more to what you are trying to experience in the present moment.

Allow yourself the feeling of being in the flow of a gentle stream. As you allow yourself into the safety of this flow, the memory of comfort will embrace and encompass you, and you will begin to recognize it, and it will no longer be unknown. Throughout the day, keep working on reminding yourself of what you wish to be experiencing. For whatever you choose to focus on is what will more frequently appear during your day. So dwell within the state of mind that you call positivity, defining positivity as that which brings you peace of mind and joy in the present moment. And if planning assists in bringing this state of mind, then plan. And as you are going through any process, recognize that you are doing so to attain a state of peace. Be aware that each thing you do, no matter what it may be, you are doing it to achieve peace. And as peace of mind and joy become the motivation for more and more of your activities, as you experience the love and safety that comes along with such beingness, you will find preprogrammed concepts such as negativity or control becoming lesser and lesser parts of your journey. For what negativity could there be when every moment is but a gift you’re presenting yourself? And what need for control is there when you finally begin to trust that there is One whose only desire is for you to experience peace of mind and joy? And what sense of security and safety would eternal beings such as you and me, and our brothers and sisters truly need when there is One who has already promised us that all will be alright?

Note:  To read more about being in the now, you may want to read Chapter Eight Overview: Being in the Now or watch our Inspiring Video: The Present Moment.

   

View larger images of front & back cover 
of the great spiritual / self development book You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey from Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy by James Blanchard Cisneros.