Your point of attraction is about how you feel in this moment. So your power to create—to attract—is happening right now. Not in the past, not in the future.
Let me ask you: Are you living your now? Or are you living in the past or in the future?
I’ve been thinking about what keeps us from being present.
The first way we prevent ourselves from being present is by dwelling in the past.
No surprise there, right?
Many of us are spending a lot of time in the past—rehashing, regurgitating, regretting, reliving.
We think about things we wish we had done. Or hadn’t done. We think about things done to us. We wish this had been different and that had been better.
“If your mind carries a heavy burden of past, you will experience more of the same. The past perpetuates itself through lack of presence. The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future.” —The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
You can’t avoid this LoA reality: If you are mired in the burden of your past, you will experience more of the same.
“My future isn’t about my past. Life is only about NOW. Nothing that has ever happened has anything to do with now unless, in my now, I continue to think and speak about it. Fresh new thoughts today will always give me a fresh new experience.” —Abraham
That is a life-changing concept, isn’t it?
Nothing about your past—regrets, hurts, disappointments, upsets—nothing that has ever happened has anything to do with now unless you continue to think and speak about it. Because it’s only in thinking and speaking about it today that keeps it active in your vibration.
There is so much freedom if you embrace that notion.
“The content of your vibration equals how you feel right now. And whether you’re thinking about the past, the present, or the future, how you feel right now—as you think about the past, the present, or the future—is your life. And it’s a precious, fabulous, creative life that you are not wanting to squander in a place of resistance. Your life is right now.” —Abraham
The takeaway here is not to squander your life, today, right now, by dwelling in the past.
The second way we prevent ourselves from being present is spending all our time in the future.
I’m not past-oriented at all. I spend very little time thinking about the past—yesterday, last year, ten years ago, childhood. Whether about positive or negative things, the past just has never interested me all that much.
But where I can get in my own way is being future-oriented. And I used to think this was a good thing. Because I could use all my planning skills and penchant for making lists and setting goals to support all this future thinking. I looked at it as a special talent I have.
However, since my obsession with Law of Attraction, I see all this future thinking very differently. I no longer consider it a desirable way to show up in my life. Why?
Well, it’s like Wayne Dyer says: “Present-moment living, getting in touch with your now, is at the heart of effective living. When you think about it, there really is no other moment you can live. Now is all there is, and the future is just another present moment to live when it arrives.”
Here’s how I used to operate: I was so busy planning my future—whether that was my To Do list for the next day, what I would do for the upcoming weekend, next year’s vacation, my 1-year plan, my 3 year-plan, my bucket list… I was living in the future in all kinds of ways.
The problem with all that—I was never present for the actual moment I was living.
Eckhart Tolle says: “It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.” —The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
This is what I refer to as Someday Syndrome. And, oh my, did I use to suffer from it!
I had all the classic symptoms. Namely: I’ll be happy when…
- I’ll be happy when I start my own business
- I’ll be happy when I get a certain number of clients.
- I’ll be happy when I live in a different place.
- I’ll be happy when I lose twenty pounds.
- I’ll be happy when the dishes are done or the errands are run.
Can you relate to Someday Syndrome? Do you think or talk or act along the lines of I’ll be happy when?
“The reason you want every single thing that you want, is because you think you will feel really good when you get there. But, if you don’t feel really good on your way to there, you can’t get there. You have to be satisfied with what-is while you’re reaching for more.” —Abraham
So here’s my question: Are you postponing happiness—or some other emotion like enthusiasm or empowerment—until X, Y, or Z happens?
- Maybe for you it’s paying off your mortgage or getting the promotion.
- Maybe you’re postponing feeling optimistic until you get the new job.
- Or waiting to love yourself only when you reach your ideal body weight.
But that’s not how it works. You have to feel now how you’ll feel when X, Y, or Z manifests in order for X, Y, or Z to manifest. That’s Law of Attraction.
You have to align vibrationally with what you want in order for what you want to manifest. Which is, of course, the opposite of Someday Syndrome, which says I’ll feel the emotion only when, only after I get what I want—acquire the shiny penny, reach the goal, have the experience.
“The point of power is always in the present moment.” —Louise Hay
It’s not in someday. It’s now.
Life is not a dress rehearsal.
In my work as a life coach for the last ten years, I’ve often said, Life is not a dress rehearsal. But I’ll be honest, what I used to mean by that was: So you’d better think about what you want and go after it! Set goals. Make plans.
Now when I say Life is not a dress rehearsal, I mean go ahead and feel now how you want to feel—excited, optimistic, empowered, appreciative, joyful—and go after what you want. But don’t wait until you get X, Y or Z to feel how you want to feel.
Don’t delay your happiness until something manifests that you want. That is still making life a kind of dress rehearsal.
I think we can all agree living in the past and living in the future are not living in the present.
But you may be so used to being past or future oriented that you’re not even aware of how frequently you are not present to NOW. If you’re like me, you need to bring awareness to the fact that you’re even doing this because it can just be so normal.
I love this from Eckhart Tolle: “Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry—all forms of fear—are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.”
It’s time to shift away from too much future and too much past, and embrace a whole lot more presence.
Your only power to create is right here, right now. It’s not yesterday. It’s not tomorrow. It’s now. Your life is right here, right now.
You want to appreciate your past and you want to look forward to your future but mostly you want to savor your now.” —Abraham
What will you do in this moment to savor your now?
