When I was in high school, I couldn’t wait to get to college in order to escape all the typical teen trauma drama, study fascinating subjects, and really get to enjoy life.
When I was in college, I couldn’t wait to graduate, start working a full-time job making decent money, and really get to enjoy life.
When I was working in industry, I couldn’t wait to start my own company so I could eliminate corporate bureaucracy, work on solutions that could help improve the world, and really get to enjoy life.
That’s the challenge with looking to the future for such happiness and fulfillment – it’s always in the future.
We spend so much of our time and energy focused on some future state that we completely miss the present moment. And we bemoan our current situation as “not good enough”.
We live our lives striving for some future state to save us from our current state of lack.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with setting goals and attempting to bring about changes in our life and in the world around us.
The challenge comes when we seek our happiness in the future.
Once this certain thing happens, then I will be happy. But not now.
But there is another way of experiencing life – one in which we can bask in the joy of being. When we can truly experience the “is-ness” of everything that comes into our life – without judgment, just acceptance – then we open ourselves to incredible happiness.
In the words of A Course in Miracles,
It is a situation of perfect peace, simply because you have let it be what it is.
Unfortunately, we don’t give ourselves even a moment to let anything be what it is. Our first ego instinct is to judge everything. If it affects us in some way, we typically judge it as good or bad.
Judgment and “is-ness” are mutually exclusive. We cannot simultaneously judge something and accept it as it is.
Judgment is the rocky road to misery. Being is the pleasant path of peace.
Which would you rather walk?
Join me in Monday’s class where we’ll explore the joy of being and how we can practice true acceptance and experience wonderful peace. I look forward to seeing you then.