I am So Into This Book!

I apologize for this post being so long, but I am so intrigued by this book that I wanted to share some things I read last night with you.....

I'm still reading "The Power Of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. I got sidetracked by another book, but I am back to it. While reading last night I came upon a section of the book that really hit home with me.

Eckhart was talking about how the majority of people live in the past and the future rather than in the present. Are you like that? I know I am.

I constantly find myself reliving things from my past...not just things from a few days or a few weeks ago, but things from years and years ago. I even replay past conversations in my head. I am also always thinking about the future and how things will be IF or WHEN....

In the book, the author talks about how doing those things has a tremendously negative impact on the quality of our lives and really serves no purpose. You can't change the past and you really can't predict the future. The only thing you CAN control is this very moment...NOT five minutes ago and NOT five minutes from now....hence the name of the book.

I've told you before that I try very hard not to worry or fear things that I can't control, and I'm really pretty good with that, but that doesn't stop me from obsessing over past mistakes or the future itself.

Here are some awesome excerpts from the book:

"Are you stressed? Are you so busy getting to the future that the present is reduced to a means of getting there? Stress is caused by being here but wanting to be there or being in the present but wanting to be in the future. It's a split that tears you apart inside."

"Are you worried? Do you have what if thoughts....Ask yourself what problem you have right now, not next year, tomorrow, or five minutes from now. What is wrong with this moment? You can always cope with the Now, but you can never cope with the future--nor do you have to"

"One day I'll make it." Is your goal taking up so much of your attention that you reduce the present moment to a means to an end? Is it taking the joy out of your doing? Are you waiting to start living? If you develop such a mind pattern, no matter what you achieve or get, the present will never be good enough; the future will always seem better.

"Large scale waiting" is waiting for the next vacation, for a better job, for the children to grow up, for a truly meaningful relationship, for success, to make money, to be important, to become enlightened. It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living....you don't want what you've got, and you want what you haven't got. With every kind of waiting, you unconsciously create inner conflict between your here and now, where you don't want to be, and the projected future, where you want to be. This greatly reduces the quality of your life by making you lose the present."

"When you honor, acknowledge, and fully accept your present reality--where you are, who you are, what you are doing right now--when you fully accept what you have got, you are grateful for what you have got, grateful for what is, grateful for being."

I have always been grateful for the things he mentions, I think most of us are...yet I spend a lot of my precious time longing to have success, more money, to live somewhere else, to be retired....by doing that, I am forcing myself to think of nothing but the future and how much better it will be, when in reality, things are pretty awesome right now. What if none of those other things ever transpire? What if my life IS what it IS right at this very moment, and that's all it ever IS? Would that be terrible? NO not at all.

So, starting today...I am trying very hard to think of just today. To be so grateful for what I do have that I don't desire anything else and I stop wishing my life away.

I will let you now how I am doing and what other interesting chapters I come upon in Eckhart's book. It is definitely a great read!