Call-In DIscussion, Tues. June 10

Chapter 8, “Live in the Present Moment,” is something I had to learn because like most of us, I tended to live more in the past or the future. In accepting that TMS requires us to think back on our childhood, it brought up many unpleasant memories of my boyhood… poverty, parents arguing over finances, their divorce and my feelings of abandonment, or guilt that I somehow caused the divorce. But I journaled about it all and came to new understandings that led to forgiving my parents since I figured they had their own TMS pains.

So living in the present moment may, by journaling, take us back to the past, but after we spend no more than half an hour there, we need to get back into the present.

Living in the future sets us up for worrying that tomorrow or later may bring new anxieties and fears. Jesus said not to worry about tomorrow, that today’s troubles were enough for us. We can easily think ourselves into financial, health, or other anxieties if we think about the future.

The ultimate thinking about the future is thinking about our mortality and is there life after death? Who really knows the answer to that?, but so many people with greater minds than I have believed there is life after death, I prefer to think as they did. The trick is not to think of it at all.

I give an example of a college friend who visited him in Germany but spent their hours together planning where I was going to be the next day. My friend threw away the present.

I quote from many famous people about living in the present. One of my favorites is from Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden, who wrote: “Don’t live your life constantly looking forward and ignoring the present. You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, and find your eternity in each moment. There is no other life but this.”

I also suggest we follow the advice of Buddha: “The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”

How do we live in the present moment? I say our awareness must be completely centered in the here and now, not thinking about the past or the future. The past and present are merely illusions; they do not exist. Living in the present moment means living where life is happening to you, in the now, this very moment, not moments past or future.

If you’re living in the present, you’re living in acceptance. You’re accepting life as it is now, not as you wish it would have been or hope it will be.

Living in the present moment means being aware of what we are doing and what is going on around us. If we are washing the dishes, we should feel the warm water and smell of the soap, and tell ourself, “This is me, now, washing dishes.” If we are taking a walk, we should feel ourselves walking and tell ourself, “This is me, now, taking a walk.” When brushing our teeth, we should feel the taste of the toothpaste and the brushing, telling ourself, “This is me brushing my teeth. I am calm and feeling good and relaxed.”

I end my chapter with more quotes from famous people, one of whom was one of my favorite humorists, James Thurber, who wrote: “Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.”

My own thoughts on living in the present are about my dog Annie, a big black Labrador Retriever. Dogs only live in the now… Unless their nose tells them where they buried a bone in the back yard.

I hope you will join me and Herbie in the call-in Tuesday night to share your thoughts and experiences on living in the present.

 

My chapter 8 is called Visualizations and Meditations. So get ready to have a mind bender and then some great stuff to know, here we go.

We often think its got to be that one big repression in order for us to heal and most often its a lot of repressions that have built up over the years that we haven't faced and don't intend to face. More often than not all those years of silent anger and self criticism have become our one big repression. I talk about the importance of having two journals at the beginning of my chapter 8 and how to journal out the bad emotions as well as journal in the good emotions.

I go on to talk about another form of an outlet for our anger or fear. Its something like this; if you feel angered then imagine a mirror in front of you and on that mirror imagine the color of your anger or fear.
Now in your peripheral vision imagine another mirror somewhere to your left or right. Next imagine a color that would represent your anger or fear and then attach that color to the word anger or fear in front of you. After a few seconds watch the color flow to the other mirror across from you, left or right. Then imagine foot steps and what they sound like, imagine seeing only boots walk in and take the mirror in front of you that you had sent your color of anger or fear too. Then breathe and say peace and open your eyes.
This should be beneficial to you if done right. The steps above have helped many people in the hypnosis world loose pain as well so its something to think about and it hits on all of your senses so you can run the gambit on your emotion overload to ease it and dissipate your anger or fear.

I also talk about adding emotions to your meditations and visualizations. The emotions we attach to our feelings when doing some great meditations and imaging can be a very powerful hand to help in time of anxiety or pain, it has worked for me many times when I was distressed and it has worked to give me that awesome feeling that I'm always looking for to start my day.

This is just the very beginning since I also have affirmations that will help you control your anger in the time of need, in the now. The trick is to be aware of your reactions for sure.

And this sure isn't last but I know lots of good folks that work against the pain cause they think that is what the good doctor said, on one hand it holds true and on the other you need to know when to let up cause its not the physical that is going to heal you -- it's the psychological. We need do the physical work so we can defeat the atrophy that has set in and also to beat the sensitization we have accumulated over the years.
This is a new paradigm we are learning so keep your sense's wide open and your learning hat on, soon you too will be writing your own success.
Bless you

 

Herbie, Rob says the call-in last Tuesday didn't go through because of technical difficulties, so we should do our chapter 8's this coming Tuesday.
Your chapter has a lot in it, and mine focuses just on living in the present, so you can have most of the hour.

 

That's awesome Walt, living in the present is a powerful tool, just take your time.
What I have to talk about will be mind bending but it works like magic.
Bless you my friend

 

Bless you both for a wonderful book!!

 

Hi folks,

Here's the recording of the June 17th discussion. I am SO SORRY it took so long. If there aren't any technological problems (hopefully avoiding this sentiment: ), expect the recording from tonight's discussion on Thursday or Friday this week.

As always, you can listen to the recorded discussion by using the audio player below, or you download it by right-clicking on this link (or the link below the audio player) and choosing to save it to your computer.

Click here to download the mp3 audio​

Again, many apologies. Enjoy, & happy listening

Becca