Sunday Newscape Magazine

Many of our fears are tissue-paper-thin, and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them. - Brendan Francis

Who sways public opinion more than any other single individual these days? My vote: Oprah Winfrey. I've been an interested viewer of her show for just about as long as it's been on air - 20+ years. She's gone through many changes in the focus of her show and recently she's dedicated to shifting the consciousness of the planet. If she's anything, she's a BIG thinker.

I became a Tolle fan when I first read his previous book in June 2001, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. I'm now on my 5th reading. It remains hands down an all time favorite.

Eckhart is a champion for being present to the moment and breaking our addiction to relentless, and often destructive, thought. Bold words to say to a culture that worship intellect.  He believes that we miss out on life and our joy because our minds are continually skipping off to yesterday or tomorrow - abandoning today, this moment, and consequently forfeiting our capacity to truly experience the actuality of now. Which, if truth be told, is pointedly why many don't want to be present to the now - they don't like what it is.

Upon my 5th return to Now, I'm remembering what I awakened to in previous readings, but somehow it never integrated into my conscious mind. I guess sometimes we need to visit a lesson multiple times before it becomes more than just an interesting idea and bonds to our DNA. This realization is that we do not experience fear when we are consciously present in this moment.

Sure, you might be experiencing fear in this moment. You could even be experiencing terror. But, that feeling is not about this moment. It is always related to a thought about an imagined future. We literally scare ourselves to death by letting our thoughts visit a future that isn't even real.

Almost 75 years ago to this day, newly elected US President Franklin D. Roosevelt faced a country on its knees, deep in financial depression. In his Inaugural Address he hit the country's panic head-on by unveiling the terrifying specter of fear: "...the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." (I read his entire speech for the first time and it is indeed moving and eerily relevant to today.

FDR understood the devastating power of a mind stolen by tomorrow's thought. He knew that you cannot fight that figment. The only way to pull yourself away from fear's paralysis is to be present in this moment. In this moment action is possible. In this moment, choice exists. In this moment, fear is thin smoke and holds no power over conviction.

You can be assured that when you are in the grips of fear, your mind is concocting a future filled with every horrible reality it can imagine. Each moment you spend in that make-believe tomorrow is a lie. And each moment you stare in horror at that illusion steals your precious Now. The Now when choices can be made to create a different future. The Now where your personal strength is more real than your careening thoughts.

When you feel fear robbing you blind of the truth, take a deep breath and know that you can only live in this moment. Today what you fear doesn't exist. Your breath will bring you back to this moment and will allay your fear. Be here now and fear dissolves. You will gain nothing by being frightened. You will not be more prepared to deal with tomorrow by experiencing fear today. It will not make you braver. It will not diminish by facing it today. Fear grows stronger as you spend time with it. It is not your friend; abandon it now.

Do what you must do today. Tomorrow is a result of your actions today. Spend them on positive action. Don't waste them dreaming of a nightmare you cannot foretell. This moment is power; tomorrow is borrowed trouble.

In Joy, Karen

(c) Karen Wright - all rights reserved - http://wrightminded.com