Ok. So I hope that you’ve given yourself the opportunity to wake up in the present moment and find the serenity that lives there. If you haven’t quite found the serenity part, I’m going to posit that you’re mind is still being a sneaky dreamer. It’s still pulling strands of the past and future into your awareness and has you believing that it’s real and true in the present moment. Keep working at this. You’ll catch your mind’s sneaky business if you keep at it.
Now let’s talk about how acting from the dream of the past or the future can lead to regret, sadness, anxiety, or any number of other uncomfortable feelings.
Have you ever made an impulse buy that you felt bad about later?
Have you ever acted out by yelling at someone that you love, said a snarky thing to a person in authority, or binged on a tub of ice cream after a break up?
Those actions are largely driven from a place of discomfort in the body – feelings that we associate with sadness, boredom, anxiety, anger, guilt, agitation, etc NOT from places that are truly calm, peaceful, or serene.
Remember the strength of the Mind/Body connection that I mentioned in the last post? Yep. That’s the culprit here too. When the Mind sneaky dreams about the past or future, the Body responds to that dream. If the Mind is sneaky dreaming about a past that is less than lovely – say a break up or a perceived diss – or it dreams of a scary future, the Body responds appropriately. The Body responds as though the Past or Future Dream is Real. When we take action that is based in discomfort – THAT’S impulsivity! While impulsive actions can SOMETIMES work out for the best, they often don’t. They often end up resulting in consequences – whether small or large – that are less fruitful or satisfying that what we might have actually wanted.
Generally speaking, when we act from a place of Serenity, our actions are more in line with our values, and the results of our actions FEEL better. Honestly, in my experience, if I am awake and acting from that relative place of peace, I step in my own shit less often and have less to clean up after the fact.
So… if being Awake in the Present Moment is a pathway to Serenity, it is also the Road to better decision making and more value aligned actions and thus MORE Serenity.