Quote:
Originally Posted by 8 Ball
I know so many people in this mindset right now. We need to step back and remember what brought us joy. We have so little control over global events, it can get extremely frustrating. I’m going to my families July birthdays party today, so the whole world can #### off for an evening. I mean it’s not the most helpful advice, but everyone needs to just step back and enjoy the small things now and then if they can.
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The small things are all there is.
The future and past don't exist. Just what you see and experience right now in this moment.
When people suffer they're drifting off into one or the other and are no longer being here right now.
If its the past they're remembering something that they assigned more significant meaning to than it was actually worth, if it's the future they're perhaps fearing a potential event that's highly unlikely to happen in the precise worst case scenario that they see in their mind. And that can put them into survival mode in the present, which creates stress on the physiological self.
If you think about it, tomorrow when it gets here will just be another *now* moment. So that's why you want to be in the here and now and practice that. And the funny thing about presence is that it's nearly impossible to feel downtrodden or anxious while you're in it. Because the present moment is actually very easy for us to digest. It's when we start assigning future implications and start jumping to future conclusions that we invoke suffering on ourselves. It's impossible to be stressed by just taking in the present moment as an impartial spectator who is actively observing.
Stress from getting in your head also shortens your life, whereas meditation and practicing presence actually may be proving to lengthen it on a DNA level.
People need to get away from the TV news hour and immerse themselves in their own present life instead. The smaller you keep your scope, the more manageable things feel. And that's because they are. Why subject yourself to suggestions in the news of more things to worry about. How does being made aware of those things improve your life quality? It doesn't. It just gets you more into your head and out of the present. Ignorance, while looked down upon by some who value being in the know on as much as possible that is going on is really sometimes the best direction to take, especially if you care about your own mental state.