Law of Attraction: The Energetic ‘Benefit’ of Living in the ‘Now’

You hear a lot about the benefits of living in the ‘now’ and it is one of those pieces of personal development wisdom that becomes so cliched it loses all its meaning, and we totally disregard it. It easily gets dismissed with an eye roll, and we go right back to being constantly immersed in either the past or the future, and oh the suffering we inflict on ourselves!

Both of these trains of thought pose their problems from an energetic/manifesting perspective, and can kink up our vibe in a variety of ways. Like all our negative thought patterns, we may not be able to stop this tendency in its tracks completely, but we can certainly make significant headway.

Ultimately, it will come down to conscious choice, and rejecting all the wonderful arguments your mind will make for why you must constantly ponder the past or fret about the future.

For me personally, learning to live in the ‘now’ has been of significant benefit for not only conscious creation, but for improving my life overall ,since our inability to do this is one of the primary culprits of that constant ‘low-grade’ suffering that always seems to exist in the backdrop of our lives, even when things are basically going okay.

Develop True Gratitude

When it comes to activating the powers of the law of attraction in your ‘favor,’ cultivating gratitude for what you already have is paramount, and you are likely no stranger to this suggestion.

If like attracts like, then feeling grateful for the things we have now will help us attract more things for which to feel grateful. Makes sense.

The problem is, most of the time, this ‘gratitude’ we are expressing is basically bullshit. We make our gratitude lists, we think of all the things that we ‘should’ be grateful for, and we may muster up a bit of the feeling, but for the most part, it is just lip service.

We actually aren’t making any real effort to feel genuine gratitude for what we have now, we are just doing that because we are told if we do, we’ll get what we want in the future.

The good old ‘gratitude list’ is one of the favorite tools we bust out, and like many of the tools, we just ‘do’ them thinking this action alone will lead to a change, not realizing they aren’t serving the purpose they are supposed to serve, which is to actually make us feel better, to change our energy and our focus.

When we try to muster up gratitude as a means to an end, in hopes of getting something in the future that isn’t here yet, that energy is probably going to be pretty weak. We really aren’t feeling true gratitude because we are more focused on what we don’t have yet and the negative feelings that is causing. We really aren’t present with the feeling, it’s not real.

We are not in the moment, we are not really happy with where we are now, and our mind insists on focusing on the lack. All the good things don’t really matter, they are neither here nor there.

But when we make an effort to truly be in the ‘now,’ in the present moment, and we aren’t concerning ourselves with trying to get something for the future we don’t have now, it gives us an opportunity to really develop true, genuine, powerful gratitude.

We are just concerning ourselves with the present moment, and if we think of all the good things we have now in the present moment, we will sincerely, truly appreciate them. We will appreciate them not as a means to an end, not because we think it will ‘help’ us get something else, but just for themselves, for the benefit they bring to our life NOW.

Reducing the ‘Ick’ of Past and Future

LIke I mentioned in the beginning, concerning ourselves with the past and future can mess with our energy in countless ways, and make it really hard to solidify the beliefs and perspectives that will serve us much better, to look beyond our current reality.

Thinking about the past plants countless seeds of doubt in our ability to manifest something different moving forward because your mind comes up with all these stories about how it can’t possibly be different. It uses your past experience to ‘prove’ why your various fears and limiting beliefs are valid, and you get stuck in that energy.

You’ve always dated assholes, how can you possibly meet a nice guy? You’ve lacked money your entire life, how can you possibly become wealthy? You’ve been struggling with your business for years, how can things possibly turn around so dramatically? You’ve been sick for years, and have tried every treatment available, how can you possibly get better?

When you are living in the ‘now’ and basking in that energy, being present, you are freed of all that; when your mind isn’t going there, the stories stop, that energy starts to weaken.

It is like a clean slate, and nothing that has come before can affect you because the only way the past can impact your present is if you keep it alive in your mind, you let it influence your behavior, choices, actions and beliefs in the present moment.

When you are not consumed with the past and all its pain, you move away from trying to create from a space of holding the manifestation responsible for healing all of it. This tendency just keeps us laser-focused on the problem, on the unwanted, and guess what we will continue to attract? 

While there is often some value to be had in digging through our past and getting a sense of how that may have shaped our beliefs and energy in the present moment, for the most part, we don’t have to comb through it as intensely as we may believe.

It is a dangerous trap to fall into because there will always be something to ‘find’ and something to ‘analyze.’ For us imperfect, beautifully fucked-up humans, the past contains within it a bottomless pit of pain, dysfunction, poor choices and regret. And often times, these revelations will be of no use to us in the present moment anyway. 

If something from your past is relevant for a current issue, it will make itself known. You don’t have to go digging for it in the depths of your mind.

And now onto concerning ourselves with the ‘future.’ It is really hard to enjoy where we are now if we are constantly trying to get somewhere else; we will always be focused on what don’t have, what hasn’t happened yet. The present moment never seems to be ‘good enough.’

Even if we aren’t consciously aware of doing this, we tend to withhold permission to be happy, or at least happier, until some particular goal is met, until some particular change or series of events has transpired.

We worry about all the things we don’t want to happen, that we hope don’t happen. If X, Y or Z doesn’t manifest, then this bad thing or that bad thing will happen. We consume ourselves with worry over problems that may not even materialize ever.

And from an energy perspective, we see how constantly being in the energy of the ‘problem’ and focusing on what we don’t want, is not going to bode well for us. Hard to attract what you want if what you don’t constantly has your attention.

When we really make that effort to be in the ‘now,’ to be in the present moment, we make a wonderful realization that no matter what may be happening in your life, at this very instant in time, in this very second of ‘now’ everything is fine. And that energy is very powerful and can continue to gain momentum for all the ‘nows’ to come.

And rather quickly, you can cultivate a vibration that will be very beneficial for allowing in the changes you wish to see in your life because all the ‘ick’ that gets activated when we become oriented towards the future is not there anymore.

When it comes to taking actions that we think will be of benefit at some point in the ‘future’ for our business or whatever else, we more easily detach from outcomes and expectations. We take the inspired action because it feels good now, and that will be its own reward.

We are no longer taking these actions from a space where our primary motivation is still to get something we don’t have yet, to produce an outcome to which our mind has attached. It helps take us out of that energy where we are still pretty much focused on what don’t have, and are taking steps to hopefully ‘make’ it happen.

It’s unlikely we will completely stop concerning ourselves with what we view as the ‘future.’ Living in the ‘now’ doesn’t mean literally never, ever thinking past the present moment. You can still do that but you will do it in a very different way, a way that feels a hell of a lot better.

Trust in the process and your capabilities is easier to cultivate when you are not consumed by your past experience and what has already happened. Fear can’t survive in a mind that is not concerning itself with the future and all the things that ‘might’ happen.

All the fucked up stories your mind has told about your past cease to be in the forefront of your mind; whatever stories your mind is concocting about the future get shut down.

The ‘now’ is the only thing that is actually real, and the only space in which you have to cultivate a different energy; it is where all the power is. Our preoccupation with the past and future significantly weakens that power, and we can choose to let it go.

The question is, are you willing to make this choice or are you going to keep doing things the way your mind insists, even if it causes you a crazy amount of pain? 

How to Be in the ‘Now’

The first and most important piece of advice for being more in the ‘now’ is consciously choosing to make an effort to do so. While you can’t totally shut down all of your mind’s shenanigans, you do have a lot more power than you might realize.

You can turn down the volume on ruminations of the past and future so much that a lot of the time,  it pretty much feels like these thoughts aren’t there at all. The ‘charge’ goes away, as does the emotional investment in the chatter.

You may observe yourself thinking these things, but you don’t feel much; it doesn’t influence your emotional state as easily as it once did.

Work on embracing the present moment rather than ‘fighting’ off the thoughts of past and future. This might seem like two sides of the same coin, but energetically there is a world of difference, as the former energy is ‘positive’ and the latter is chock full of resistance.

Make a conscious effort to ‘feel’ the real you, the ‘you’ beyond your body. This part of you is always stable, always okay, always tuned into ‘truth,’ is never for one second buying into the illusion to which our minds holds fast.

Immerse yourself in your environment–pay attention to what you are seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling. When you are doing something, really focus on it, no matter how mundane it may seem.

When you are doing something that is making you feel good, really cloak yourself in the energy; really appreciate the feelings, the people and anything else that is a part of that moment, that experience.

This will take practice but with a true willingness to do it, it’s not as hard as it may seem.

Your Turn

What did you think of the post? Anything resonate in particular? Any tips you have for living more in the present moment? Looking forward to your comments as always.

Have a question you think would make a good blog post? Submit it here.