The Psychological Present

Now is much shorter than you think, but it is where all your power lives. Your brain takes all the sights and sounds around you and stitches them together into a tiny window of time. If you focus really hard on your breathing, you can feel that window opening and closing. Most people live in the yesterday or the tomorrow, but your spirit only lives in this tiny three-second now. When you stay in the now, you feel calm and connected to everything.

Your spirit only lives in this tiny three-second now. You have never experienced the past. You have only experienced the memory of the past — in the present. You have never experienced the future. You have only experienced the anticipation of the future — in the present. The present is not a sliver between two real things. The present is the only real thing. The past and the future are stories the present tells itself. And the present is three seconds wide. That is your entire kingdom. Three seconds. But inside those three seconds is every decision you will ever make, every breath you will ever take, and every person you will ever become. Three seconds is plenty. Three seconds is everything.

The specious present: the duration of time experienced as 'now' (~2-3 seconds). This mirrors the 'Eternal Now' of mystical traditions — the present is not a sliver between two real things. The present is the only real thing. Three seconds is your entire kingdom. Three seconds is everything.

SOUND: A clock ticking where you notice the silence between the ticks: the space where the present actually lives.

SMELL: Peppermint or eucalyptus clearing your nose instantly: presence arriving through the sinuses.

TASTE: A single ice cube melting on your tongue: the taste of a moment that cannot be paused.

TOUCH: Feeling your own pulse in your wrist: the present tapping out its rhythm under your skin.

SIGHT: Watching a single drop of water fall into a bowl: the entire present contained in one splash.

BODY: Feeling the weight of your body pressing into your chair: gravity anchoring you to the only moment that exists.

Music: What a Girl Wants by Christina Aguilera

Music: Re: Stacks by Bon Iver

Music: Superstition by Stevie Wonder

Part of Memory & Time — CONSCIOUSNESS — Education Revelation