How to live in the present

On October 25, 2016 By thesuccessmanual Topic: Remarkable, Quotes

This guide belongs to 100 Ways To Be Being Remarkable  Series, a special project that brings you business and self-development advice from The Success Manual.

ACT NOW
If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.
- Steve Jobs

While we are postponing, life speeds by.
- Seneca

The real world in one word:
“NOW”.


When you’ve to shoot, shoot, don’t talk.
- The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

When you see a snake, never mind where he came from.
- W.G. Benham

Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
- Friedrich Engels

If you are not part of the steamroller, you are a part of the road.
- Gregory Rawlins

Only the present moment exists. That is where life is (indeed it is the only place life can truly be found). Becoming aware of the 'now' has the added benefit that it will draw your attention away from your (negative) thoughts. Use mindfulness techniques to fully appreciate your surroundings and everything you are experiencing. Look and listen intently. Give full attention to the smallest details.

- Eckhart Tolle

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That's why we call it the present.
- Babatunde Olatunji

Accept nothing, challenge everything.
Act quickly... but not too quickly.
Actions speak louder than words.
- Anon

There is only one time that is important — NOW! It is the most important time because it is the only time that we have any power.
- Leo Tolstoy

ECKHART TOLLE, THE POWER OF NOW
This book emphasizes the importance of being aware of the present moment as a way of negating past and future. In Tolle's view, the Present is the gateway to a heightened sense of peace and aliveness. "Being in the now" also brings about an awareness that is beyond the mind. This awareness helps in transcending "the painbody" that is created by the identification of the mind and ego with the body.

1. You are not your thoughts. You are the awareness behind the thoughts. Thoughts are often negative and painful, yearning for or fearing something in the future, complaining about something in the present or fearing a matter from the past. However, the thoughts are not you; they are a construct of the ego. Awareness of your thoughts without being caught up in them is the first step to freedom.

2. Only the present moment exists. That is where life is (indeed it is the only place life can truly be found). Becoming aware of the 'now' has the added benefit that it will draw your attention away from your (negative) thoughts. Use mindfulness techniques to fully appreciate your surroundings and everything you are experiencing. Look and listen intently. Give full attention to the smallest details.

3. Accept the present moment. It is resistance to the present moment that creates most of the difficulties in your life. However, acceptance does not mean that you cannot take action to rectify the situation you are in. What is important is to drop resistance so that you let the moment be, and that any action arises from deeper awareness rather than from resistance. The vast majority of pain in a person's life comes from resistance to what is.

4. Observe the pain-body. Years of conditioned thought patterns, individually and collectively, have resulted in habitual emotional reactions with an apparent personality of their own. During 'pain-body attacks' we become completely identified with this 'pain identity' and respond from its agenda - which is to create more pain for ourselves and others. Observing the pain-body is awareness itself arising - as it allows humans to separate from this unconscious identification with pain.

Enlightenment means choosing to dwell in the state of presence rather than in time. It means saying yes to what is.”

If I am not for myself, who is for me?
If I am for myself alone, what am I?
If not now, when?

- Hillel

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