The Emerging Present Moment

“Whenever an answer, a solution, or a creative idea is needed, stop thinking for a moment by focusing attention on your inner energy field. When you resume thinking, it will be fresh and creative.”

~ Eckhart Tolle

Your true creative life emerges in the Now. The past or future only exists when you are remembering the past or anticipating the future through your habitual thinking.

How to Be Present

Cultivating profound attention to your direct experience will help you to live your life more creatively. Here are six steps to cultivating deeper presence.

1. Take a Deep Breath. Take a deep breath through your nose and let it out slowly to create a relaxation response. When you breathe with your mouth open, you trigger an anxiety response.

2. Be Aware. Look around you. What are you doing? Who are you with? What are you feeling? And, what are you noticing? Take in the details of this present moment with acceptance - just as it is right now.

3. Witness. Your real life is now...now...now...now. Acutely observing the present moment reveals the depth, mystery, and creativity of what is emerging without all the imprints from the past influencing the creation of a similar future.

4. Release. When you feel your past intruding into the present moment, see if you can welcome and accept it briefly, and then let it go by saying, "That was then. This is now."

5. Travel Light. Feel everything inside and outside you with acceptance. That's all. Engage fully with your present moment as it is showing up right now.

6. Come Back to Breathing. When your anxious thoughts and feelings intrude into your present moment, come back to your relaxation response through your breath. Say, "I am right here, right now."