Q: You know, P'taah, I think one of the hardest things for most of us to do is to step out of the old stories in our lives and actually live in the Now. Today I thought perhaps you might talk about how we can do that.
P'taah: All right. You see, in a way each of you is programmed from your birthing. First you are programmed in how to be the child of the parents. Then you are trained how to be a friend and companion as you grow and mix with others. Then you learn how to be employee, perhaps, and perhaps another story would be to be husband or wife or lover and then you be parent, and it all starts again.
So you grow with these stories and the stories have stories attached to them as you live your life and as you experience this and that. So from this moment, from this Now, looking back you have an attachment to these stories and also a kind of role which you play in these stories.
Where the stories are wondrous and expanding and beautiful, then indeed that is how you experience this Now moment and how you perceive that you will experience your next Nows. However, where the experiences have been negative, you bring those negative experiences into this Now and in a way very often project them into your future because that is what you know. So the trick here is to start each Now, in a way, with a clean slate so that you write your own Now moment.
Now, we have said how important it is for you to step out of these roles so that you can become more of who you are, not just an extension of the old story with both its negative connotations as well as positive. So, the importance of being in the Now moment is that you can choose how this Now will be for you and choose this Now to be the stepping stone to a different, expanded, wondrous tomorrow.
Of course, the choice-point can only be the Now moment. The NOW is your power place. It is also a place where you can transform that which is no longer useful to you. So it behooves you well to be focused in the Now.
Much of your life is spent reviewing the past or locked into the stories of the past and projecting these experiences into a negative future. And then you wonder why you are not experiencing much joy or play. So what we are saying here is that NOW is the power place, NOW is the choice-point and NOW is the only time that you can live life to, what you would call, the max, to have maximum awareness. Only NOW, not in the past, and if you are attached to the past, so indeed it will be not in the future either. NOW is the choice-point.
Q: You make it sound so simple. I keep thinking that there's got to be a trick to it.
P'taah: Really you know, beloved, it is all about attention and focus. Being focused in what you are doing and how you are being Now.
Q: And not going through what you have to do, what your to-do list is, and what you need...
P'taah: Well, you can do that, you know. Just be aware that the important thing is not what you are going to do tomorrow, really. The important thing is to be aware of what you are doing Now, even if that is preparation for tomorrow.
Q: And that's where the juice is. When you are actually fully present in your life is when it gets to be exciting and fun.
P'taah: That is correct. Also, it is when you are focused in the Now that you can allow the flow. There is no flow when you are in your past or in your future. Does that make sense?
Q: That makes absolute sense. I tend to spend a lot of time in little stories that go nowhere and you're right. There is absolutely no flow there. Very good. But we're really addicted to our stories, so as I say very good, I think it takes practice.
P'taah: It does take practice, you know. And also it is not to make the addiction to the stories wrong either, because sometimes the stories serve you very well. It can be through the stories very often that you learn your discernment.
Q: (Laughs) Yes, oh yes!
P'taah: So it is not to invalidate your past experiences at all. Only to say that where you want, where you desire, flow, where you desire transformation, then it must be that you are giving your fullest attention to what is occurring NOW.
You can reference that--what has occurred beforetime--you can reference that to what you are desiring for your future Nows, but just be aware of what you are doing. And when you are caught up in your stories and your dreams and your imaginings, that is all right, too, only be aware that that is what you are doing.
Q: Excellent. Thank you.
P'taah: It is my pleasure, beloved.