The reality behind mindfulness and The Power of Now

With recently having started a business, I feel I have learned a thing or two about the reality behind "The Power of Now". Some of you may be familiar with this concept from a few years ago when suddenly these Eckhart Tolle books were everywhere and he was on Oprah promoting "the power of now", which is essentially a response to our stressful lives and our search for peace, happiness and contentment in our lives and in this world. It's a "technique" or more like an "idea" to bring your focus and awareness into the "now" and not be constantly thinking about the future, so that you can be more at peace with yourself.

Recently I came across such a "power of now" type of quote on Twitter, saying something along the lines of "By only looking at what is ahead of us, we fail to enjoy the moment". And sure enough, reading a quote like that you kind of feel inclined to agree and be like "yeah, totally", but then when it comes to the real-time physical moments in your everyday life it becomes hard to really put those words into practice. And this because, as I have realized, those words simply are not practical. They don't deal with the reality that is physically manifested here. A reality of survival, competition that has a degree of "ruthlessness" to it.

And on a "logical" level, you'd be "right" when you'd say that "you're just thinking about it too much", "you should stop paying attention to your thoughts" and "at the end of the day, all your stress is just all in your head". However, what I have come to realize is that to say this stuff to yourself is almost like trying to convince yourself that this world you exist in - a world that is in fact defined by systems of survival, a world wherein people do struggle everyday to earn enough money to live comfortably, many of which can't even get to that point of comfort in their lives - is not really here.

I mean, the Power of Now is in a way about convincing yourself that "you" are the problem, and that the only reason why you experience stress is because "you" are not being mindful enough and thinking about the future too much. When in reality, yes you are part of the problem due to the thinking- and reaction-patterns which you participate in that's creating the stress, however a large part of "why" you go into those mind-patterns is because of the environment you've learned to "cope" with. Your thoughts and reaction patterns are your coping-mechanisms which you use to survive in this world.

For example, there have been many experiences of fear and stress coming up for me since I have started my business. Now I could think to myself that I am creating this stress because I am not being mindful enough, not aware enough of the moment and rather thinking too much about the future, and yes on a "logical" level this is "true". However, it's not going to really assist me to step out of the stress because the whole "power of now, mindfulness" point is simply not practical. If anything it's just going to keep me in cycles of beating up over myself for not being mindful enough and for allowing stress to get to me.

What DOES assist me to step out of the stress and be able to work with the stress, is to develop an understanding of not just how my own mind works but also of how this world and reality works. To understand all the dimensions of what this stress is based on so that I can actually find practical solutions to let go of the stress -- rather than just telling myself that I need to let go of the stress and be more in the "now".

More in blogs to come ;)

Thanks for reading.

Kim Amourette