To understand this concept better I highly recommend these two books: A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra. The concepts introduced seem to have gained a lot of ground over the last couple of years and these books give some good insights into the importance of living here and now. I’m quite sure it’s more pronounced in me than in most people I know, although the more conscious I become the more I notice it in others as well. Have you ever experienced the “staring into space” phenomenon? Has anyone ever told you “you’re a million miles away” or “on another planet”? I experience this state often and let me warn you now, become aware of it! More than likely you have some level of dreamer personality as well.

At the beginning of the year I had a particularly bad sequence of events happen to me. As such, it was difficult for me to take my focus off of these events and place them anywhere else. Reality is an interpretation and my reality became a repetition of the negative past events in my head. This was the strangest and scariest experience I’ve ever had and caused me to drift off into my head so often that I wasn’t able to focus on important things like work, my health and the actions needed to change my circumstances. It elevated further, into a debilitating spree of insomnia, panic attacks, wild mood swings and depression. Things I’ve never experienced before and hope to never again.

And now two months later, after a shift in focus and an improvement in Presence (something that I constantly need to work at) I’m already starting to roll out my blog. And let me tell you something, implementing a blog like this is no easy feat, considering I’ve been out of web development for some time.

Presence is simply that. Being here and now, regardless of circumstance. I believe the most successful people in history have not been those with the most money, power, sex or whatever else it is you consider to be the epitome of success, but rather, strong Presence. All these other things are merely by-products of presence in my opinion. That is, complete and utter acceptance of the current situation, non-judgement of others AND yourself and then taking responsibility for the situation to make a difference in your world. Non-judgement is a difficult thing to master, but it contains immense power. Why focus on the so-called shortcomings of others when you can choose to put all of your energy into manifesting your dreams? Carrying the burdens of the past and worrying about the future are meaningless endeavours. What you have is now, and here and now contains the power to change your world.

Recapping a simple 4 step plan:

1. Complete and utter acceptance of this moment regardless of circumstance
2. Non-judgement of others AND yourself
3. Accept responsibility for the current point in your life
4. Take action to change your world

The magic is in the fact that every day is a new start with an endless amount of possibilities. The problem lies with us holding on so tightly to only one avenue of happiness/success. Don’t let your mind be fooled into thinking this. If you’ve lost your job, if you’ve lost a partner, if you’ve lost a leg, a car, your bag, some money, whatever it is.. was.. it wasn’t meant to last beyond how long you had it for. It doesn’t mean you won’t have those things again (even possibly the leg, considering the innovations taking place in the medical field currently) but simply that this is the current situation.

There is way more to be said on the topic but as it’s my first proper post I want to sit back, read and constructively criticize my blogging. And in tying with this topic the only way it’s going to improve is just to keep doing it and not thinking about it too much.