There is yet another way that we get stuck and keep ourselves from
changing. We may also train the body to be the mind in order to live in a
predictable future, based on the memory of the known past—and thus we
miss the precious “now” moment again.
As you know, we can condition the body to live in the future. Of course,
that can be a means to change our lives for the better, when we make a
conscious choice to focus on a desired new experience, as my daughter did
when she created her summer job in Italy. As her story demonstrates, if we
focus on an intended future event and then plan how we will prepare or
behave, there will be a moment when we are so clear and focused on that
possible future that the thoughts we are thinking will begin to become the
experience itself. Once the thought becomes the experience, its end product
is an emotion. When we begin to experience the emotion of that event
ahead of its possible occurrence, the body (as the unconscious mind) begins
to respond as though the event is actually unfolding.
On the other hand, what happens if we begin to anticipate some
unwanted future experience, or even obsess about a worst-case scenario,
based on a memory from our past? We are still programming the body to
experience a future event before it occurs. Now the body is no longer in the
moment or in the past; it is living in the future—but a future based on some
construct of the past.
When this occurs, the body does not know the difference between the
actual event transpiring in reality and what we are entertaining mentally.
Because we are priming it to be juiced up for whatever we think might be
coming, the body begins to get ready. And in a very real way, the body is in
the event.
Here’s an example of living in the future, based on the past. Imagine that
you’ve been asked to give a lecture in front of 350 people, but you fear
being onstage, based on memories of previous public-speaking disasters
from your distant past. Whenever you think about the coming talk, you
envision yourself standing there stammering and losing your train of
thought. Your body begins to respond as if that future event is unfolding
now; your shoulders tense, your heart races, and you perspire heavily. As
you anticipate that dreaded day, you cause your body to already be living in
that stressful reality.
stevenselfio
(Stevenselfio)
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