I AM NOW ™

Enjoy life to its fullest!  Enjoy every moment, every feeling and every action.  You have created them; you are the power behind them, so enjoy.  Smell the fragrance of life's experiences each moment.  This moment is the eternal expression of the NOW, and nothing, yes, nothing exists outside the NOW.  Whether you enjoy the NOW is up to you.  All that stands between you and total enjoyment of NOW are your thoughts.

Thoughts are your fantasies about the past and future.  When you think about the past, you recreate, in your mind, the situation and feelings that you experienced, and you believe that is what happened.  The reality is that this recreation is based on your current feelings, needs and wants, and not based on what actually existed.  It is very similar to the grammar school game of gossip.  One child whispers a story to the second child, that child whispers the story to the next, and this process is repeated until the last child then tells the story aloud.  When the last child tells the story, it has dramatically changed from the original.  Some content will remain similar, but very little.  The same is true about your thoughts about the past.  Each time you retell the story or recreate the story in your mind, you alter the content, meaning, feelings and salient points.  Your thoughts of the past become your fantasies.  The past does not exist, except in your memory, the fantasy of your mind.  These thoughts prevent you from experiencing NOW in its totality.

Since the past is a fantasy, what does this say about the future?  Thoughts of the future are nothing more than the past projected into the future.  Without a past, the future cannot exist.  Since the past is nothing more than your fantasy of a prior experience, and since the future is that fantasy projected into a time that has not yet occurred, the past and future are really nonexistent.  Both the past and the future are illusions.  They prevent you from knowing the NOW, from knowing the moment, from knowing yourself, and from knowing your enjoyment of your present eternal experience.

The fact that thoughts are fantasy does not make them bad, wrong or useless.  In order to live in society and to exist in this world, thoughts are very useful.  What makes thoughts destructive is your emotional attachment to them.  Your attachment to thoughts is evidenced by your emotional response to them.  This emotional response occurs because you have the belief that your thoughts are real.  The more you believe your thoughts to be truth, reality, what actually was, is, and will be, the more you are controlled by them, and the stronger your addiction to them will be.  The stronger your belief, the stronger your addiction, and the more emotional your response.  This cycle will be repeated and intensified until you finally realize the absurdity of thoughts.

Remember, thoughts are nothing more than your own creation.  They are your beliefs, remembrances, desires, wishes, wants, expectations, shoulds, should nots, etc.  When you are addicted to your thoughts, you are being used and controlled by them.  The more your thoughts prevail, the less you experience being in the moment.  The more you believe your thoughts to be real, the more difficult it becomes to experience the moment for what it is, rather than what you believe it to be.  Do not allow your thoughts to control you.  Instead, you can use thoughts.  Become the master of your thoughts, and you become the master of your life.

Becoming the master of your life is as easy as sliding off a slippery rock.  All that it requires is awareness:  awareness of this eternal moment.  All that it requires is to be here, NOW.  All that it requires is knowing NOW rather than believing the past, the future or your interpretation of NOW.  All that it requires is for you to recognize that your thoughts, feelings and actions are your own creation.  All that it takes to accomplish this feat is simply the act of doing it.  What makes doing it so difficult is the thought of how difficult it is.  Richard Bach, in his book Illusions said it quite well, “Argue for your limitations and sure enough they’re yours.”  Believe it is difficult, and it becomes difficult.  Believe others have power over you, and they do.  Believe you are not your own master, and you are not.  Take the risk and dive into Inner Awareness Mastery NOW™.  Mastery is inside!  Mastery is knowing!  Mastery is NOW!  You are the Master!