by Hew Dalrymple

Created on: April 12, 2009

Living in the moment is not really a problem, for we really have no option. Life is always in the present moment, but for most of us our unruly minds report differently. Our senses with which we connect with our world, all function in the present, but by the time the message has reached the brain it has been compared with previous experiences and interpreted in relation to the past.

The past may be a series of disaster, errors in judgment leading financial loss or break up in relationship but they are always learning experiences, grist for the mill of life. Each challenge as we face it in the present is not only a test of our ability but more importantly it is a test on our acquired ability, including how we learn, how much we retain from past experience. However, being caught up with past experiences at the expense of a current challenge is to deny our innate need to progress and to evolve. Most of our discontent and unhappiness comes from living with, attachment to negative feelings from the past, causing emotional blocks and thus failing to be aware of life living through us in the present.

The process of growth is a series of constant change, some we notice, most we accept as part of growing up, or part of growing old, but some changes we assess as good or bad, these are the learning experiences for they grate on our sensibility, tear at what we see as normal, erode our confidence; but more importantly sharpen our judgment. As William Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." And the part of our consciousness that assesses relative values is the part that attaches us to the past. That is our ego, which lives to reinforce and update our concept of the self; always based on something that has happened, even if only seconds ago..

Why is this the way it is? When we are first born it takes some time before we learn that we are separate from Mum and we instinctively develop defense mechanisms for survival. We may learn to yell when we feel the stinging discomfort of a wet nappy, or when the tummy growls about lack of tucker. We may learn not to pull the dog's ear, before we do it to the wrong dog. Should this be more serious and the youngster frightened more than his innate defenses can cope with, the incident may become disowned, and a "shadow" is established in the child's memory. Later, irrational fear of dogs may be present.

Some of us have more deeply rooted and serious shadows, others may know why they live

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