We are told through life to focus on our dreams and focus on building a perfect future. It is supposed to be an empowering message, but it is actually one of the messages that traps us the most. Trying to create a perfect dream life is in fact a coping mechanism. We do this unconsciously as a way to escape the present moment by dreaming of something better. But it happens to be that this present moment right now is all there is and ever will be. Hence, the perfect future only exists within our minds.
Maybe we all can remember a few moments through life where we felt like everything was just perfect. Maybe we got a desire fulfilled or we were exactly where we wanted to be in life. But then it turned dark again, life happened, the moment was over and we lost touch with the perfection. If you are like me, those perfect moments were much more rare than the moments of stress, worry, longing and so on. I realised this when I travelled to Australia and felt a moment of pure perfection. Being young, healthy and happily travelling with friends, I realised that this is how I truly wanted to feel, live and be. However, my life had been everything else but this. How did it go wrong?
It is the ultimate paradox…
What made life perfect in that moment was the strong presence in me. This presence made me appreciate and live life to the fullest. I didn’t look for errors or problems to solve. On the contrary, I was naturally and deeply immersed into the present wherever I was. I came to see how much trouble and suffering I had created for myself up until that point because I was constantly involved with a drama or issue inside my mind. But most of this mind dreaming never bore fruits and was more like a big waste of time and energy. If I could rest my attention consciously here and now, life was not that bad.
As I came home from the trip, I managed to maintain the flow, ease and enjoyment of life because I kept returning to the present moment. This is how my journey of awakening started, though I knew nothing about how this connected to spirituality at that point in time. Before awakening life was filled with high heights and low lows. It felt like a never ending cycle of chasing, achieving, realising it wasn’t enough and then start chasing something else.
We chase a future because we believe it will bring us more than what we have. We believe that when the future brings us what we desire, we will feel peace, joy and meaning in life. However, truth is that it lures us into a dreaming and mental fantasy which takes us away from true peace and joy, which can only be found right here right now. It is a paradox.
Escaping into the world of the mind…
When we are young, we start to become aware of thoughts. When life hits us, we begin to retract into the mind as an escape from the harsh reality. In the mind we can dream away and fantasise about a better reality. Over time this tendency becomes the new normal. In a sense, our minds get wired this way and the ego force puts us in a never-ending trance of seeking a perfect life. This is how we end up stuck in thinking about a nostalgic past or dreaming about a perfect future scenario. Perfectionism is an illusory dream of the mind.
Know that life is just right here right now and it has always been like this. True liberation is found where we stop seeking and surrender to what is. Life is dualistic seen through the filter of our mind. As long as we seek the good side of future imagination, we will have to encounter the downsides. This includes future anxiety and attachments towards needing life to be a certain way. Not to mention disappointment when life doesn’t live up to our expectations.
Do you want to escape the never-ending future chasing? Let me help you realise natural enjoyment in the present moment. Check out my mentorship program right here. Let me know in the comments below what you think.
Much love and namaste,
Julie