How present are you?

[Starman]

In my opinion it is important to be present in the here and now. It seems most people live their lives in the memories
of yesterday and the desires for tomorrow; I am no exception.

Although I have learned that life happens in the present and to savor life as it is happening. What we do with our
attention is the most important thing we can do in this life, and placing your attention in the moment helps to grow
and expand our awareness in ways that no other mental exercise can.

Focusing our attention in the moment helps us to better conserve our energy, as we are not using energy for
memory and imagination when we are solidly in the moment. Living in the moment also helps us to develop our intuition.

I have been doing quiet meditation since the 1970’s and I love being still and quiet inside, which keeps me solidly in the
present most of the day. Now that I am retired, staying in the present is rather easy because I only deal with the world
on a peripheral basis.

There is a timeless quality to be experienced when we constantly live in the moment, a dimension that the mind, racing
between memories, desires, and imagination, struggles to comprehend. If you stay in the present on a continual basis
you might even come to perceive life as happening in one continual moment, one eternal now.

The present is a precious gift. When a person is in a mental health crisis counselors will attempt to slow that person down
and get them to be in the moment. Fear is always about what is going to happen next. I have been with lots of people as
they took their last breath, and would help them stay in the moment and be with it as it is happening.

[FairyCrystal]

We spend only 5% of the time in the conscious mind, and with that in the now.
The other 95% we're kind of 'off' elsewhere, caused and driven by our subconscious. This allows us to do many things automatically, like cycling, driving, walking through traffic without getting run over, operating machinery without having to think about each step and so on.
And there's also of course lots of programming from childhood, picked up the first 7 yrs when we are merely recording.
70% of that 95% percent is negative and/or stuff & programming that doesn't serve us.
But staying in the now is difficult. It's exhausting. The conscious mind isn't as fast as the subconscious, which is like a mega super computer. Maybe that's why it's exhausting to live in the now, from the slower conscious mind.

[Starman]

Originally Posted by FairyCrystal

But staying in the now is difficult. It's exhausting. The conscious mind isn't as fast as the subconscious,
which is like a mega super computer. Maybe that's why it's exhausting to live in the now, from the slower conscious mind.

Human beings can re-condition themselves to where being conscious is not difficult, rather it is similar to staying in an easy-going
flow of conscious awareness. Disciplined yogis in India and elsewhere have been known to consciously control their autonomic bodily
systems without the use of thought.

The average human condition is under-developed. Esoteric science teaches that subconscious deduction is influenced by self-conscious
induction. In short, our subconscious is not detached from our conscious. This is also taught in the Hebrew Qabbalah. Although most
people seem to prefer the Freudian model of the subconscious.

I agree with what you are saying about the human condition, but the human condition is still evolving, if ever so slowly. There was once
a time when human beings did not know that they had a subconscious.

[Waverider]

Originally Posted by FairyCrystal

We spend only 5% of the time in the conscious mind, and with that in the now.
The other 95% we're kind of 'off' elsewhere, caused and driven by our subconscious. This allows us to do many things automatically, like cycling, driving, walking through traffic without getting run over, operating machinery without having to think about each step and so on.

But if we walk through traffic without thinking about the argument we had with a school bully 20 years ago but totally focused on here now (traffic) then we would do a much better job. Living in the present is exhausting at first because of our mental conditioning ghat makes us all compulsive thinkers. We have rewire our mind to lead happy lives.

[jason change]

i've been meditating for 10 years now. for the last 2 years i've been bringing presence into daily living so that i am completely immersed and in the present moment no matter what i'm doing. for example, as i type - i am feeling fully the keypad under my fingers; i am listening to the keyboard and when i stop typing, i listen and observe the silence. i would say i am present 70% of my day on a very good day. on others when i am more busy or talking to people, i am present 1/2 the time. i am now practicing how to engage in conversations with people while being present and being in the moment of hearing each word and listening to the silence between each word without coming up with what to say next. also, speaking, i will feel the vibration of my voice in my chest and also listen to the words i say. it's quite amazing that you really don't need to think for words to come out!

[Waverider]

Jason, please tell us more. How did you start? What triggered? Was meditation proving to be ineffective/meaningless? How present when you started out 2 years ago? Share tips/observations that could ease my journey.

[jason change]

Originally Posted by Waverider

Jason, please tell us more. How did you start? What triggered? Was meditation proving to be ineffective/meaningless? How present when you started out 2 years ago? Share tips/observations that could ease my journey.

hello! i was always a spiritual person since i was very little. i remember being 5 years old and trying to turn the lights on from my bed with my mind and when it didn't work, i thought to myself that i was just not doing it correctly.

back in 2009, i had a very bad break up and that got me to start meditating. i've meditated since then regularly, starting from 30 minutes every morning and 30 minutes every evening - 1 hour total a day. i did this for a few years. then around 2013, i upped my meditation by an hour and did 1 hour in the morning and an hour at night. meditation by far, has been the most beneficial, life changing habit i've ever developed. i've healed my body in ways doctors would frown upon : ) i've manifested abundance to the point where i work 10 hours a month now and have the ability to travel the world while owning multiple businesses. i was a drug addict for 9 years and i was also very involved with gangs before all of this - through my high school and college years.

staying present allows us to step out of our negative thought patterns which are what causes us to continue manifesting the things we don't want. practicing presence through meditation ALONG with visualizing and feeling the fulfillment of things i desired to change about myself and add to my physical self allows you to create the mental space of change that you want FIRSt so that it may then flow out into the physical 3d world. hope that helps!

[WildHairedWoman]

Originally Posted by Waverider

There are 3600 minutes in a day. On an average if we sleep 8 hours that leaves 960 minutes of wake time. What portion of this wake time do you think you are present/living-in-now/conscious?

Have you been reading The Power of Now? I think it is not measurable. By nature we remember things, we think of the future how would one measure being in the present except during meditation? Daily life takes us all over the place mentally.

Now, for a story. I attended a presence meeting, the leader of the meeting had been trained by Eckhart Tolle himself. It was very intersting but like all groups I have checked out or been involved in, there is a lot of reasons to go in to delusion. We were practicing "presence" and people said things occassionally, it reminded me of the description of a Friends meeting (Quaker). Then someone said something, it just came to his mind and he said it, presence right? That trigger me to respond, but the subject was upsetting to the leader and she accused us of not being present. So maybe we need a definition of "being present" before we answer the poll if we even are able.

*** I have read the rest of the posts and see that you did define presence.

[WildHairedWoman]

Originally Posted by inavalan

"Living-in-now" may sound evolved, but, as far as I know, using your imagination is more important for evolving than "living-in-now".

"Living-in-now" is just a tool to take control of your thoughts, not a purpose in itself.

Exactly! Well said.

[WildHairedWoman]

Originally Posted by Waverider

My definition of living-in-present means focusing on the job at hand and nothing else. Living the now/present does not mean you have to be in meditation. You could be crunching numbers or driving a car or giving your cat a bath and still be present while doing these things. Am i wrong?

Driving your car, doing the dishes, things like that are the best time to Not be Present. It is respite for the mind. Now, washing your cat requires you be present just like most jobs (driving a truck, writing a program, crunching numbers, nursing someone) but there are times we need to Not be present mentally.