The Downfall of "Living In The Moment"
Can there be a downfall to a teaching? In my experience, yes.
Do you remember as a child when there was no thought to what you were doing? You just jumped in and did it. Hopefully, most of us had caregivers who were teaching us the consequences for our safety of what would happen if we put our hand on a hot stove instead of just allowing us to put our hand on the stove, and continue to get burned again and again.
What does "living in the moment" mean? Largely, it means that we're not pausing in that moment. We're not looking at our past and we're not looking at our future... we're just "jumping in" without checking to see how deep the water is first.
What is the evidence that there is a downfall to this type of teaching? Well, I have no scientific evidence... just experience. As we look around at our current world with COVID-19, there is no greater evidence to me that "living in the moment" can be a dangerous downfall. People ARE living in the moment right now and it is a disaster as we see people fighting for their falsely-entitled "rights" that continue to hurt themselves, businesses, and other people. People haven't learned that they can have an impulse, trust themselves to PAUSE and, to not follow through on it (ex. going to a party or refusing to wear a mask). We CAN have impulses, take that pause, trust ourselves, and let that impulse flow on through without following through on it as a way to rid ourselves of the unpleasantness of that feeling.
Living in the moment seems as though it can equal to narcissism and childish behavior if we haven't reached emotional maturity.
There is value to our present. There most certainly is value to learning from our past and helping us as we apply that to a decision in the present that will affect our future.
Over the past six months, I've been working on becoming a better person. What does that mean? For me, that meant taking an honest look at myself. For me, that meant pausing.
I've learned a great deal about myself, the decisions I make, and how I respond to what is happening in my life in my moment of "pause". In that "pause" I have found that I am growing up emotionally.
Would COVID-19 still be around if our world would take that "pause" to mature emotionally?
What great information could be in your "pause"?
--Lisa Pratt, November 2020
Comments
Post a Comment