Are You Chasing Your Future Self?
It’s really difficult to remain in the present and focus on what’s important right now. Mistakes and decisions we made 3 months ago, or things which may or may not materialise 10 years down the line are tricky to eradicate from our minds – it’s all about now, the present, it’s the only tense we can live in.
You can’t change the past, because it’s now your history, and you can’t change your future, because it’s not yet written – You can create plans, hope for the best and manifest until the cows come home, but at this current moment in your life, you are powerless to change your own fate.
It might be a harsh truth for some people to read – But this is the reality, 100%. There are no grey areas – it’s all either black or white.
We’ll never really know if there’s any truth in this, but the moments which have already passed could potentially have changed the way we are today – If the past decisions you made were different, maybe you wouldn’t even be reading this blog? We’re glad you are here, but that’s besides the point.
Don’t Live In The Wrong Tense
Does anybody like camping?
Sorry, sometimes I just can’t help but make stupid jokes!
There are way too many ‘what if’s’ in our lives, which can be a factor in the decline of our mental health. We dwell, worry about the choices we have already made and sometimes deal with depressive thoughts – this is a normal thing, but it’s just not pleasant.
Anchoring our awareness to the ‘here and now’ is a great way to bring our minds back from the past and into reality, the present.
There are a couple of good activities you can try to help with this:
Put 110% effort into something which gives you purpose, makes you happy, and requires your undivided attention. This enables us to focus the mind and channel our attention elsewhere, away from all the negatives.
It’s similar to when we sustain an injury, if we cause intentional pain to somewhere else on the body, the original pain appears to dissipate, for a short while anyway.
We sometimes go through life so eager to reach the next chapter that we rush towards it with incredible haste. We become obsessed with what’s coming next instead of appreciating where we are now.
In doing so, we often create anxiety for ourselves. We’re constantly rushing, always chasing the next milestone, and making decisions without giving ourselves the time to stop, think, and reflect.
Life isn’t a race to the next chapter. It’s the story being written in the pages we’re living through right now.
Turn off your phone at least 60 minutes before bedtime, socialise with friends in instead of watching TV every night and generally limit your time looking at screens.
The more and more technology evolves, the more we seem to get lured in. Clever content and addictive algorithms are at the forefront of social media platforms, so the more we view them, the less time we have available to spend elsewhere.
What are your thoughts?