Your Best Library » personal transformation

Living in the Present Moment

editor@yourbestlibrary.com — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:04:17 +0000

Our minds are great tools. We can solve a lot of practical problems using our minds. Unfortunately, we forget that our minds are just tools. And like every tool, they are useful only when they are needed. However, we cannot stop our minds. We keep thinking even if we don’t need to. Our minds create countless thoughts every moment, mostly negative.

We can argue that creating negative thoughts has its roots in our evolution. The history of mankind is full with terrible events. It can even be beneficial to anticipate negative events and take precautions. We fasten our seat belts to protect us against the possibility of an accident. As soon as we fasten our seat belt, we don’t think about an accident and enjoy our ride. However, we can’t let go of all the negative thoughts with a simple move like fastening a seat belt. We keep thinking until we become obsessed and our thoughts start to hurt us more than they benefit us.

The Noise in Our Heads

Most of us cannot even imagine stopping our minds for a while. We cannot stop the noise in our heads. Suppose that you’re living in a noisy environment all the time. How would you feel? That’s exactly how it is in our minds. Our minds create thoughts constantly and we believe in every thought our minds create. Most of the time, our thoughts are not consistent. They contradict each other, but we believe in them anyway. We don’t realize that our minds provide us with possibilities.
We believe that our thoughts are facts. This is a delusion.

Is there a way to stop the noise in our minds? Yes, there is a way and it is living in the present moment. All of our thoughts are either about past or future. The present moment is never the subject of our minds. When we focus more and more in the present moment, our minds slow down. They don’t create as much noise as before.

Slowing down our minds sounds negative at first hand. Why should we give up using our minds? Actually, we are not using our minds. We are abusing our minds. We don’t give our minds the rest they need to recuperate. We keep our minds busy with all kinds of negative thoughts that don’t benefit us or anyone else. As a result, our minds don’t perform their best when we need them.

How to Live in the Present Moment

How can we live in the present moment? By focusing on the present moment and letting go of the thoughts about past and future. That doesn’t mean to stop planning. Planning is a practical activity that happens in the present moment. We use our minds as a tool while planning. However, believing all the scenarios that our minds create and then worrying about them is the exact opposite of living in the present moment.

Here’s an example. Suppose that you’re writing a book and you’re worrying about how the book will be received by editors, critics, and readers. You wonder if it will be a bestseller or a failure. You’re worrying and making expectations about future. How can you write a book while your attention is not in the activity of writing the book itself? Living in the present moment means focusing completely on the activity of writing the book, not about worrying or making expectations about the future of the book. Which option will result in a better book? Focusing completely on writing the book or worrying about the future of the book?

Here’s another example. Suppose that you’re hurt by something your partner said yesterday. He didn’t notice that he hurt you and you didn’t make it clear that you were hurt. But now you keep thinking about the instance. Your resentment is growing. What is better for your relationship? Thinking about past and resenting what happened? Or living in the moment and telling your partner that you’re hurt?

Deeper Issues

These are two practical examples and our lives are full with practical examples like these. Living in the present moment can make a big difference in our daily lives. What about deeper issues? What if the event that we resent happened years ago and we can’t find a way to recuperate now? Or what if we have fundamental worries about the future and we can’t come up with a solution now? In this case, acceptance is the key to live in the present moment. Accepting the events that happened in the past. Accepting that the future is uncertain. Accepting the facts, accepting what is, not fighting it, but surrendering to it.

Living in the present moment is the exact opposite of what we are taught. Since the day we are born, we are conditioned to worry about the future and think about the past. Our brains are wired to ignore the present moment. Learning to live in the present moment requires breaking those wires and establishing new ones. This is not easy.

Learn More

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle is a spiritual guide that challenges our conditioning. Eckhart Tolle explains this challenging topic in an easy to understand language. He presents the text in questions and answers, which makes it easy to find the answers to your questions.

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle is an insightful resource to learn more about living in the present moment and practicing it in your own life.

Click here to read sample pages, editorial and reader reviews of The Power of Now.

A Life Transforming Habit

editor@yourbestlibrary.com — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:19:06 +0000

Let’s admit it, no matter how nice people we are, serving others feels like a burden to us. Even the idea of it makes us uncomfortable. However, it doesn’t need to be. Serving others can be effortless. And it’s most valuable when it is effortless.

Serving others is most valuable when it is effortless!

We all have great resources, but we aren’t aware of them, just because we take things granted.

Think about all the books on our shelves that we don’t consider reading again. They can make a huge difference for people who cannot afford them.
Think about all the clothes that you won’t wear again.
Or think about microfinancing. You can make a huge difference in someone’s life just by loaning her $25 on kiva.org.
If you find a free resource like a great article on web, just share it with others.
Say thank you when you’re grateful for whatever reason.
Share your knowledge with those that might need it.
Help out Wikipedia: write or edit an article. Yes, you can do it. Give it a try!

These are all the things that don’t require any effort by your side, but that can make a huge difference in someone else’s life. Just do them and see how they make you feel resourceful. That’s one of the most uplifting feelings and it will definitely transform your life for good. Not to mention the gratitude you’ll receive from the people you serve.

If you look for more ways to serve others just check 100 Ways to Serve Others by Mike King, which was also the inspiration for this post.

What’s your way of serving others effortlessly? Just share it using the comment form below!

As Simple as a Personal Transformation Book Can Be

editor@yourbestlibrary.com — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 09:33:27 +0000

Imagine a personal transformation book that is exceptionally powerful yet surprisingly simple. If you find this combination unlikely, you haven’t read The Big Leap yet.

The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks is about realizing your full potential and reaching the ultimate level of success in wealth, work, and love. In a nutshell, Gay Hendricks identifies the single obstacle between you and your full potential and shows how to overcome it. The only problem that holds you back from your personal transformation is your upper limit problem.

The upper limit problem is a hidden barrier between you and your full potential, a glass ceiling above your head. For your personal transformation to be possible, you need to overcome this hidden barrier. Most of us go through our lives without even recognizing the glass ceiling above our heads. The only way to remove it is by recognizing it as it is. The Big Leap shows the different manifestations of the upper limit problem in our beliefs and in our daily lives. By learning these symptoms, you can easily spot and overcome them.

Once you start challenging your upper limit problem, you also start your personal transformation towards your zone of genius. If you are like the most of the people, you are either living in your zone of competence or in your zone of excellence. Your zone of competence and excellence are like a closed box that will always keep you within limits. Living in your zone of competence and excellence is comfortable, safe, and sometimes even rewarding, however never satisfactory. To realize your complete potential, you need to proceed to your zone of genius. Your zone of genius is a limitless spiral; there’s no boundary to your success there.

To make the big leap to your zone of genius, you need to find your unique ability. Your unique ability is the occupation that you do most passionately and that produces the best results for you and for those around you. Once you find your unique ability, you can commit to live in your zone of genius for unlimited success. The Big Leap offers you the ultimate success mantra to live in your zone of genius. The ultimate success mantra will inspire you to flourish in love, abundance, and creativity. You will also learn the correct understanding of time, so that you can always create the time to express your genius. And perhaps the most important, this book shows you how to overcome the upper limit problem in your love life too.

The Big Leap is as simple as a personal transformation book can be; yet it is exceptionally powerful, influential, and effective.

Click here to learn more about The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks.

Free Yourself from Worries

editor@yourbestlibrary.com — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:38:09 +0000

Are you worried about the future? Do you keep resenting your past? Do you feel like life treats you unfair and people unkind? Do disappointment, bitterness, and depression sound familiar to you? Do you want to learn how to overcome the pain in your life?

In The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle takes a look at our sorrows. He challenges our thought patterns, the way we perceive things, and our approach to life. He comes up with alternatives that set us free from our pain. What are the causes of our grief? What makes us struggle? How can we put an end to our suffering? How can we reach the state of joy and freedom?

The answers of Eckhart Tolle involve living in the present moment, accepting what is, and surrendering to life. He offers practices to free ourselves from our minds, lifting our consciousness, and moving deeply into the now. He explains the mind’s ways to avoid the present moment and how to overcome the noise created by the mind. He describes how to be more spontaneous and to live in the present moment. To live in the present moment, that is the way to peace, freedom, and joy.

The Power of Now is not a complicated, hard to understand text. On the contrary, it is easy to follow and organized in a conversational style. The ideas are presented as answers to the questions that a reader might ask. It is a powerful text that deeply affects its reader, leading her to reflect on her life, on her way of living and thinking. It can be the start of your personal transformation if you allow it.

Are you willing to accept this invitation?

Click here to learn more about The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.