The only reality we have is this living moment. The only possibility we ever have to make a different choice, to alter a course of action, or to change our mind, resides in “this” moment. Yes, we can plan on doing something tomorrow, but both that decision to wait and the action itself when it occurs will be choices made in present tense, “now” moments.

Oddly, it seems to me for most people the significance of “this” moment pales in comparison to how important we consider our past and future to be. This at least seems to be true given how much time we spend there. Indeed, “this” moment seems to have has little meaning, and little value.

In order to grasp the profound implications of this, it is important to first understand an interesting quality of the human mind.

Let me begin by noting that most people are not conscious to most of their experiences. They are only nominally tuned into the thoughts they are having at any given point in time, their emotional and body level feeling states. memories, decision making processes and even most of the impulses which drive the actions in which they are engaged.

The fact of the matter is that almost everything we do is done without much awareness. A very large percentage of our day is spent on automatic pilot and only in very particular circumstances do we actually have to be conscious and pay attention to what we’re doing.

For the most part, none of this is a problem. This essentially non-conscious system functions like this because we have already practiced and learned how to behave and respond to our life during our many years of growing up. Having learned to talk a long time ago I don’t have to start relearning every day. The same goes for driving my car, shopping, interacting with others, and on and on.

But what happens if I have to do something different than what I’ve learned to do? What if my ways of being in the world aren’t working for me? Somehow I have to be able to override the purely habitual and automatic quality of those learned responses which are not working for me, and adapt them to become proper and effective responses.

I cannot change something if I am not aware of what I am doing. I can only change and over-ride my cognitive and emotional responses and reaction patterns if I am aware of them in the moment of their activation. But if I am am right in my previous assertion that most people spend too much time not being present to “this” moment, then herein lies the problem.

If my previous life lessons were inadequate in some way I will constantly be bumping and rubbing up against this life inevitably creating varying levels of distress for myself and for others. Given that my choices and actions didn’t work the first time it’s unlikely they will succeed the second. When my normal ways of solving my life problems don’t work despite repeated attempts it creates a very interesting scenario almost always accompanied by some anxiety. Eventually, if enough efforts fail and my situation worsens I can even get depressed.

The next series of articles will look at this position I am expressing in more detail. I invite you to read further and see if I can answer any doubts or or questions you have about what I am saying. and to learn about what I think is the only genuine way to deal with such issues.