Live fully in the present instead
Worrying has become more commonplace these days and mental health is at a low ebb, so many reports say. That’s bad news. Better news is that most of us can do something about everyday worrying and improve our sense of wellbeing. Those nagging thoughts are completely pointless, totally illogical and we don’t need to entertain them at all.
Worrying is a plague in itself
Worry is part of the plague of thinking too much, and being overloaded with information that comes at us from all directions only exacerbates matters. If we observe our thinking processes, we will quickly notice that one thought inevitably leads to another. Worry is simply a chain of thoughts with a backdrop of fear – a fear of something either not turning out as we want it to, or turning out as we don’t want it to. It’s a harmful habit that we need to quit.
Worrying – the opposite of our true nature
Our true nature is clear unbounded consciousness. In rare moments of clarity, we may have brief glimpses of it, like a completely cloudless sky. It isn’t out there somewhere, nor inside us. There is no inside and outside. It simply is, and that pristine unboundedness is who we are. After a few seconds – longer if we are lucky – something stirs, thoughts come and the clarity is lost again. However, if we learn to become still by being relaxed and focused in the present, some of that clarity will return and start to infuse our lives, in everything we think, say and do.
No magic fix – but there is magic to be found
There is no magic fix, we just have to keep training ourselves to come back to the present, taking time to gaze, to stop and breathe, to wonder, to love. Those moments are the magic of life. Yes, there will be things we need to do for others, but we are of far more use to this troubled world when we become a still and loving presence than if we fill our life with “what-ifs”.
How to live now is the theme of the book: The Art of Not Doing
It goes without saying that the world at the moment is sick and that there is need for healing on a grand scale. Medicines and vaccines will play a major part in dealing with the pandemic, of course, but at some point the underlying causes need treating, too. In most cultures, it is a tenet of traditional medicine that when conditions are right and in balance there is good health. When there is imbalance, internal or external, there is potential for sickness, and the world has been seriously out of balance for a very long time. The governor of balance is our consciousness, whether that be individual or collective.
Healing is in essence a process that harmonises and unifies. The world has always been troubled with the opposite – divisiveness – and this has manifested so very clearly in world politics in recent times. Divisiveness is a symptom of the ego, or sense of a self that is independent of others. It is this which creates poverty, racism, selfishness and every other human ill. To restore balance, the human race needs to move towards unity, both within itself and with the world of which it is a part.
What can we do? One of the ego’s best lines of defence is to blame. When we judge or criticise others, we put ourselves apart from them. Watering the seeds of separateness within ourselves, the cracks in our consciousness grow. This view on life informs everything we think, feel, say and do. Instead, we need to heal the cracks, and love is the wonderful glue that helps to do that. When we notice our thoughts turning judgmental, we send out loving kindness instead. It’s actually not that difficult, so even if we are obliged to stay at home, we can still radiate wholeness and goodness. That’s healing.
