There’s something you can always do, from when things go well until they go terribly: love your present.
You can love your situation, where you are now, your body, the infinity of things, the time you have, life, and even flaws, suffering, and problems.
Loving things seems like such a rebellious and personal growth “guru” gesture, but it’s the thing we all already do normally when we’re feeling good. Now, this “feeling good” is something very complex, there are many variables at play. The most important of these, however, is only one, our inner choice to accept everything , to thank for everything , to love everything , without excluding absolutely anything.
In a word, love your present.
It’s kind of a magic formula for instantly feeling better, and the best part is that it works in the long run, too. You can love your present and have horrific conditions around you, and still feel great. Instead, you can have a phenomenal life, money all over the place, wishes fulfilled, problems solved, comfort and luck, and still not feel really good. I don’t mean “someone else has all these things and they’re still not well”, because at that point you would say “well, give them to me and you’ll see how much better I’ll be”. No, I’m really talking about you . I’m telling you that one day you may have everything and absolutely everything you want, and still suffer because you’re not loving your present.
- Love your present, and basically you will be fine under any conditions.
- Don’t love your present, and you won’t be able to feel good even if all the conditions and planets of the world magically align.
Is it really that simple? Absolutely yes . There’s little you can do about it. The Buddha himself also said a similar thing: as long as I have my inner awareness that I can appreciate everything about my Self just because it is part of my Self, I can go anywhere, even to hell, because what happens outside my Self does not I have to.
From personal experience, I can only confirm the wisdom of these words. Learning to love my present, absolutely unconditionally, was and still is the single most important step forward of my entire life, and of all my growth.
How to love the present
So try it too, love and appreciate and give thanks for what’s there, now.
If you find it difficult, perhaps due to conflicting emotions such as sadness, a sense of oppression and injustice, or anger, try this.
Take a few minutes off whatever you were doing and relax . Maybe go to the park, go out for a walk, or just sit somewhere quiet. Now, stay with your thoughts for a few seconds, and try to step back. Try to separate your emotions from their origin, and you will notice that at the root there is always a goal to reach or a desire of some kind, beyond which your well-deserved relief will “finally” await you.
Now, this must be a free and conscious passage, so I can’t force you to do it, but the idea is, gradually, freely, and lightly, to detach yourself from those goals and desires for a few seconds. Don’t try to achieve anything therefore, don’t go in any direction, not even with your mind. If you continue to experience the same emotions as before (which is very likely), go ahead and try them, and associate them with the things you would like to achieve to get rid of them.
If you decide to let go of those goals even for just a few seconds, you’ll realize how they were the ones causing the emotions and tensions that were bothering you, and you’ll finally be able to relax. Once you achieve relaxation and inner stillness, loving your present will become the most natural thing in the world.
