Do you always feel that you are not happy? When I have a job, I am anxious because of the fear of losing my job and the pressure of getting along with my colleagues and bosses; When you don't have a job, you worry that you have no income and worry about your future development. When I wasn't in love or married, I often worried that I would die alone; After getting married, I was irritable about the trivial matters of my family...... Endless anxiety and pain have become mental labor that most people cannot escape. But Eckhart Tolley, a spiritual teacher, said that people's misfortunes and fears are actually created by the brain. It's your brain that thinks about your past, worries about your future, and keeps you stuck in place. in other wordsThe reason why a person suffers is that he is not able to live in the moment.
In The Power of the Present, Tory draws on his own experience and in-depth research to summarize the secrets of entering the present.
這本書被讀者奉為曠世之作，20年蟬聯亞馬遜暢銷書排行榜，曾被翻譯成50多種文字，暢銷全球500多萬冊。
After reading The Power of the Present Moment, you will grasp the root of anxiety and pain, and gain inner wisdom and true joy.
01
In the book, the author mentions a concept called the "body of pain."
Every emotional pain you experience will remain in your body and merge with the pain you have suffered in the past.
This accumulated pain is a negative energy field that occupies your body and brain.
At this time, your body and mind are wrapped in pain, drenched in the pain of the past, or dread for the future.
Under the control of the body of suffering, man will live as a slave to the brain, trapped by the suffering projected by the mind, but there is no escape from it.
I have read such a story, there is a businessman named Jason, who has encountered a series of troubles one after another:
His company has been accused of violating business laws, his wife is sick and hospitalized, and his only son is on his way to the battlefield with the army, where he could die at any moment.
During that time, he was full of thoughts about "whether the company was going to go bankrupt", "what if his wife couldn't be cured", "he really should have prevented his son from joining the army......
Anxious, he couldn't eat or sleep every day, and soon began to lose a lot of hair and his eyesight deteriorated sharply.
In just ten days, he seems to have suddenly aged 10 years old, and the whole person has become extremely vicissitudes.
Looking at himself in the mirror, he was shocked and decided to calm himself down first.
He writes down his troubles on paper one by one and revisits them:
Although the war is ongoing, the son is currently unharmed and unharmed.
The wife received timely treatment, her condition showed no signs of deterioration, and the probability of recovery was more than half.
The grounds for the prosecution of the company were not sufficient, and the risk of being banned was eliminated after the lawyer's defense, and the maximum fine was a small amount.
In fact, everything is not so bad, it is his thinking that subconsciously takes the worst possibility as a reality.
"I fought with my own brain, and my shadow was seen as a terrible enemy, and I was almost defeated," he said. ”
He no longer worries, but calmly copes with the lawsuit, accompanies his wife for treatment, and contacts his son regularly, and it doesn't take long for life to return to normal.
Most people's suffering is not necessarily real, but an illusion created by excessive thinking.
Sometimes I dwell on what has happened, blaming myself for not being able to do better, why not being able to think more holistically;
Sometimes I worry about things that have not yet come, and I am afraid that my efforts will not be rewarded, or that I will encounter problems that cannot be solved.
The book states:
In this world, we need time and brains to live, however, when they take control of our lives, pain and sorrow arise.
That is, it is not life that torments you, but your mind that refuses to let go of itself.
Thinking is like a rushing river, taking you again and again to escape from reality and wander away from the illusion of the past and the future.
Once you indulge in it and forget about the present moment, you will continue to burn off energy until you are exhausted and completely overwhelmed by the rapids.
02
In the book, the author talks about his own experiences.
After graduating from Cambridge University, he should have a bright future, but he lived in a state of anxiety for a long time.
He is either worried that something bad will happen, or he doubts that he is not good enough, and he is deeply disgusted by everything around him.
These thoughts left him depressed, depressed, and mentally depressed.
After his 29th birthday, he finally couldn't stand himself anymore and had a strong suicidal urge.
But when he was one step away from death, he suddenly realized a problem:Do the negative thoughts in my head have to be real?
As the thought came to him, his mind went blank and he fell into a deep sleep.
After stopping his endless thinking, he had a rare good night's sleep in years.
Since then, his attention has gradually shifted from his inner mind to the outside world.
At first, he took a closer look at the house he lived in, as well as every item in the house.
Immediately afterward, he walked out of the house and took a walk while surveying the city where he lived.
He also used to sit on a park bench with nothing on his mind but quietly watching the pedestrians, birds, flowers and trees.
After focusing on the specific moments, he finally found inner peace and calm.
He called this feeling"Presence"。
That is, consciously settle for the present moment and not let the mind drift to other irrelevant things.
Focus on the moment, grasp today, as long as you don't waste every inch of time, fate will naturally not let you down.
reminds me of the story of writer Cai Ying.
In his later years, he found that the film and television industry he had been engaged in for decades was not a career he really liked.
He felt remorseful about this, and for a time fell into a negative and pessimistic mood, and was not interested in anything.
Until one day, he suddenly realized that life is short, and it is a day of happiness and sorrow.
So, he was no longer trapped by a thousand worries, and tried to only care about the present moment.
When eating, calm down and taste the food; Before you go to bed, stop thinking in your head.
When he has nothing else to do, he also admires the flowers and plants, looks at the scenery, or finds a book to read.
Gradually, not only did he get rid of all his worries, but he also became a food writer, opened his own brand, and became happier as his days went by.
"The Power of the Now" says:
Nothing can happen in the past, nothing will happen in the future, everything happens only in the present.
In life, too many people are accustomed to punishing themselves for past mistakes, worrying for the ethereal future, and infinitely magnifying the misfortunes they encountered......
But in fact, you can never go back to the past, and you can't predict the future, only the present moment is all you can have.
Therefore, the best way for people to live is to do what they do, and to live today and enjoy only today.
Eat seriously, sleep steadily, concentrate on work, and immerse yourself in the world.
Focus on the reality of the present moment and live it naturally, and the pain born from the mind will be self-defeating.
03
After the author got rid of his depression, he did not work for two years and rarely socialized with people.
But his heart was never anxious, but always full of satisfaction and joy.
This is exactly the kind of realm he mentions in the book -"Unmanifested".
When you take your inner body as a clear single energy field, you feel an all-encompassing presence.
At this point, you forget the passage of time, forget the thoughts of your brain, and gain energy from enjoying the tranquility of the present moment.
So how do we go into the unmanifested state, live out the power of the present moment, and elevate the energy within?
In the book, the author makes the following recommendations:
1. Observe the inner and get out of the mind.
The author believes that people who often feel pain actually create an unfortunate self out of pain, and believe that this illusion is themselves.
In "Ten Minutes of Meditation", there is such a story:
Andy fell into a severe depression after witnessing his friend's car accident.
The car accident scene that kept flashing in his mind made him miserable all day long.
He blames himself for not saving his friend, and he is afraid of experiencing the same accident again.
It wasn't until he came into contact with meditation that he realized that many human sufferings do not come from real experiences, but are created by the brain.
He began to consciously train his brain through meditation, blocking out loud noises and memories of the past in his brain.
When he no longer identified with the negative thoughts in his mind, he quickly healed the pain in his heart.
The mental pain that people feel is often conveyed by the brain.
If you revisit the so-called suffering as a bystander, you will find that everything is a hoax of thinking.
From now on, learn to observe and analyze the sources of various emotions and avoid being led by the nose by the mind.
Once you no longer fully identify with the voices in your head, you can be completely liberated from negative thoughts.
2. Let go of obsessions and get rid of mental time.
In the book, the author divides time into "clock time" and "mental time".
Clock time is the use of time in the actual affairs of your life, and when you are done with the affairs, you will return to the present state.
Mental time is a state of identifying with the past and continuously and compulsively projecting onto the future.
If you always pay attention to "mental time", no matter how time passes in the present, you will either still live in the past or blindly fantasize about the future.
But the past and the future are made up of the present one after another.
Only when you live the moment and second in front of you can you have no regrets in the past and the future will be smoother.
Fan Deng talked about one of his habits: every morning when he washed, he would look at the word "now" next to the mirror.
First, to reflect on yesterday, did you work without distractions? Second, warn yourself not to be cranky today.
The reason why a person is tired is because he is immersed in obsessions and fantasies and lives an unrealistic life.
By focusing on the present moment and grounding yourself in the everyday, life can draw strength from your truest feelings.
When your thoughts and actions fall on the "right moment", all the anxiety, worry, and confusion will be swept away.
3. Use your senses to focus quickly.
Douban netizens@小氯shared his experience:
When her brain is in a mess, she makes a very simple move: stretch out her hand.
Then, close your eyes and wave your outstretched hand to feel the wind flow between your fingers.
When attention is focused on the senses, the human mind naturally calms down.
In The Power of the Now, the author mentions a similar approach:
The more anxious you feel, the more you need to make the most of your senses.
For example, standing where you are, looking around, looking at some light, shapes, colors, etc.
Touch something, such as a dining table, a chair, a cup for drinking water, etc., and confirm their presence one by one.
Observe the rhythm of your breathing, feel the inflow and outflow of air, and the life energy surging in your body.
Allow anything to happen, accept all things as they are, and get deep into the present moment.
In this way, you will be able to get rid of the confusion of time and imagery and focus your energy on what really matters.
4. Surrender to the present moment and dispel negative emotions.
There is a quote in the book that says, "It is by surrendering to the present moment that you can find true strength, and find the entrance to peace and tranquility." ”
The so-called surrender is not to submit to the environment, but to live with it calmly.
When the writer Bi Shumin was 17 years old, he was assigned to the Ali Plateau Army as a medical officer.
The vast glacier and snow, and the harsh living environment made her fall into great panic and anxiety when she was young.
But she calmed down and pondered: since the facts can't be changed, it's better to spend each day calmly.
She didn't think cranky, complained, and worked every day, read books, and learned about her surroundings.
Before she knew it, she had survived eleven years and made a breakthrough in medicine, and she also gained a lot of writing inspiration from this experience.
Human suffering often stems from the escape from the bad status quo and the resistance to one's own powerlessness.
This inner pain, as fierce as a beast, has no chance of winning by rampage.
Surrender to pain before you have a chance to find a flaw and then truly tame it.
▽
At the end of the book, the author mentions:
No one chooses aberration, pain, conflict, and this happens because you don't have enough power to erase the past, not enough light to dispel the darkness.
And the best way to build inner strength is to stop reminiscing about the past, give up envisioning the future, and focus only on the present.
I agree with Wang Yangming's words:過去事，未來事，思之何益？徒放心耳。
In this life, most of the pain and suffering we have experienced are self-inflicted;
The frustrations of fear and the difficulties of worry are often just fragile and untenable