Cutting Through the Illusion

At the moment I am reading a book called The Presence Process: A Healing Journey Into Present Moment Self-Awareness by Michael Brown. I can’t say enough good things about this book. It has affected me so much that I will be exploring this work a lot in the blog in the months to come.

The biggest thing I have taken from this work is this key idea–that before you can love someone else you must love yourself. Part of how to gain that is to stay in the moment. Or, as the book says, “extract our attention from the illusion and trappings of time, in order that we may enter the present moment of life.”

Extracting yourself from time doesn’t mean you don’t make plans or dates or appointments–it’s more about how you approach those plans.  Instead of coming at them from a place of attachment or neediness, see them as moment to moment unfoldings of the eternal now.

You may be asking yourself what is the eternal now? I’m still discovering this myself, but I have had fleeting moments where there was nothing but the present. It’s as though past and future didn’t come into the picture.

I’m pretty sure I had this experience when I almost drowned about 15 years ago. Most of us probably experience this when we’re in a situation that calls for the flight or fight response. The goal of the Presence Process is to have it so we don’t nearly have to die to be in this state.

On a happier note, there are times when we are so ecstatic that past and future have very little influence on the moment. Times such as the birth of a child, falling rising and growing in love. Not to mention physical communion which are all experiences that give us some insight to the possibilities of being in the moment.

I say all this to give you a sense of the work needed to be done to enter the present moment, both as an individual and in a relationship. I’m still learning myself and as I continue to grow in this work I will share it here.