In today’s episode we talked about the power of being in the present moment and what that looks like, and how we can incorporate that in our daily lives, to be more present and be more intentional with our thoughts and our actions.
Dani: Hi, ladies. How’s everybody doing today?
Natalie: We are good. How are you?
Dani: Good. I’m so happy to be here. Natalie, do you have a card for us this morning.
Natalie: I do. It is called “Savoring the Positive.” It says, “I slow down and savor the positive experiences in my life. I purposely dwell on cherished events and people around me. Savoring the positive allows me to enjoy the moment and accept the delicious gifts that are in my life right now. Prolonging my attention on feelings and sensations connected to heartfelt memories, acts of kindness and loving encounters no matter how big or small, strengthens my capacity to embed them within my psyche. Over time, the practice of savoring the positive builds my emotional resilience providing a foundation of strength that will support me during stressful times.”
Dani: I love that so much. That’s awesome.
Natalie: Thank you.
Candace: That is great.
Candace: And as usual, fits in perfectly with what we’re talking about today.
Natalie: Which is?
Candace: Well, today, I thought that we might talk about the power of being in the present moment and what that looks like and how we can incorporate that in our daily life, to be more present and intentional.
In preparing for this episode, since we have decided to change the structure of the show and be more intentional with our topics … Well, let me start the beginning. It was probably a week and a half, maybe two we … It doesn’t matter.
In the last little while, I was reading this book. I read this passage and I had this revelation in the moment of really feeling and understanding at a very deep level what that meant. I’ve read Eckhart Tolle’s books. I’ve listened to numerous spiritual gurus or mentors about how important it is to be present and how important it is to embrace the here and now.
I got it intellectually, but it was more of a physical presence. “I’m going to be present right now sitting looking at the trees. I’m going to be present right now doing the dishes. I’m going to just be here now and not get lost in my thoughts.”
I got it at that level, but I didn’t really get it at an emotional level, and so I read this passage in this book. It just all made sense. It all made sense in the way that I could see how each choice was what paved the way for our future. Every choice that you make right now in this moment is the brick being laid for your tomorrow, for your five years from now, when you’re 90. Every brick you lay paves your future.
It really hit me in a profound way that we tend to set goals and we have dreams and we have aspirations and they’re all focused in the future. I think, I know for myself anyway, there’s a habit of, “Well, I’ll do that tomorrow. Well, I’ll do that tomorrow.” Then tomorrow becomes the future. The choices that I made today that I was going to sit and watch TV instead of doing the thing that’s going to take me to the future self that I want to be, now the future’s come, and I’m still watching TV.
In preparation for today, I went looking in this book to find the specific passage that had this huge revelation for me. I get to the part where it was talking about being present, and there was nothing there. I mean it wasn’t nothing, but it was like, “Be present. Spirit is only available in the present moment because all there is is now.” It was just the same thing that I read a million times before.
I was almost at a loss because in preparing for this, I knew that that passage, that passage was going to be revolutionary for everybody. Everybody was going to get so much from this paragraph in this book. I thought that … It felt like there was nothing there, so I don’t even have that to share, but the power in that for me, which is taking us off-topic a little bit, but the power in that for me was the power of Spirit and the Spirit leading and getting those inspired thoughts and inspired teachings maybe.
Through something … I’m not saying this right, but it was like I learned this huge lesson in that moment from something that wasn’t even really there. It was just Spirit was like, “Light bulb, light bulb.” I don’t even know right now how I got from point A, which was reading that paragraph to feeling the power of the present moment at such a deep level. No idea how I got from A to B, but I got to B.
Now I need to find a way to break that down so that it can be helpful for you, for other people. Do you guys have any thoughts on that so far?
Natalie: I think it’s like the present is so important because it’s like when you’re not in that place, you’re in the anticipation of the future, which will involve worry or excitement or all the things that you’re feeling like the things that are coming up for you. Or even fear for what’s coming up for you, and the same in terms of the past, so if you’re not actually where you are now, you’re thinking about things you should have done, things you could have done.
I think most of those, the majority of feelings that can come from that genuinely are negative, except for potentially excitement for the future or gratitude for the past, which if you have that, awesome. But so often the brain’s actually not focusing on those things unless you’re being intentional with your thought. By just going present, then you remove all of the potential negative energies that you’re attracting by thinking about future and past.
I mean I don’t know how you got there. I don’t know how you got from A to B from the passage, but yeah. I think it’s just a matter of being really intentional, which is exactly what you said. Be intentional with your thought, with your time. I think maybe, maybe in that moment, you were just much more present. You were just taking that passage and thinking about incorporating that in the now. Rather, then being like, “Oh, yeah. That’s true. In the future, I will be more present,” but instead you were just in that moment potentially.
Yeah.
Dani: I feel
Natalie: Why are you laughing?
Dani: That’s just like us and transformation so often. It’s like, “Note to self, for tomorrow, for whenever: be more present.” It’s so …
Candace: And it’s so true. I’ll add that to my to-do list.
Natalie: Must try harder. Yeah.
Dani: I love it. What was coming up for me, Candace, when you were talking is also the fact that when you got it on such a deep level, and you’re talking about really how to help people from A to B and that’s where the power is, but really seeing you revel in the power of what your understanding was in the moment. That’s how we get the expansion and the transformation from it, too, because just listening to you talk about it, gave me a renewed love of the present moment and awareness of the present moment.
If we tie it back the card in the beginning, it’s savoring the positive. When you say it, and then I get to savor it again, and I get to think about it in a new way again. I love the idea of, basically, brick laying for the future. What you’re doing right now is what you’re thinking about right now, what you’re doing right now, where your energy is right now is what you’re projecting out and calling back in. It works so beautifully on so many levels.
Candace: For sure.
Natalie: I think the other thing you said before, Candace, was how the now and the present moment is all you can guarantee. That’s the only thing you actually have. The past is gone. The future you haven’t got yet. That’s the only thing you have. I loved how you put that ’cause that just makes me want to be so intentional with how I spend my now.
Candace: Right. Right. I don’t know if I actually said that today. I think that might have been a past conversation.
Candace: But yes. That is precisely it.
There was a book that I was reading that was specifically about healing with Spirit, healing on chronic illness and things like that. She said that “Spirit only exists in this moment.” For me that was such a strong statement because I know for myself anyway, I tend to think about life, about time as this big – I don’t know – sphere, where there’s past over here. There’s future over here. The present is somewhat … It’s this big thing. When I read that I was like, “It’s just not how it is.” Spirit is only right here. We are only right here. The rest that is a complete illusion.
What you had said, Natalie, about the past and the future and how that all ties in. There’s this idea that the past and the future are – I don’t know – like solid. I don’t know of a better way to say it, but they are something. They have power. They have energy. When in reality, they don’t even exist. They are just simply thoughts in our mind. To me that was also a revelation.
I have given so much of my power throughout my life to past experiences and to future dreams and aspirations and hopes that I haven’t, for most of my life, even existed in the present moment. You know? It’s been all focused on the past. Or all focused on the future, all focused on the thoughts.
Earlier, I was thinking about that in the terms of how that shows up in life. It’s like a baby’s born into this world. All they know is the present moment. All they know is their current needs. It’s hunger. They need sleep. They need comfort. They need love; those basic needs that we all have, that most of us are completely tuned out from because we are so wrapped up in what happened before and what’s going to happen in the future.
I think that that is part of maybe the block or the wall between us being present and not or being tuned into … I think I said that wrong. I think that the block to being tuned into who we are and what we need in this moment lies in the fact that we are so attached to the past and the future.
Natalie: Totally. As you were talking before, I was thinking about how we actually define ourselves by our past or our future. It’s literally how we define who we are. We’re this person who’s got through this, this and this. Or a person who’s going to do this, this and this. So rarely do we define ourselves in this: this is me.
Right now in this moment, whether that’s doing the dishes or whatever it is, it’s always on to the next thing. Rather, than integrating. Even just that. Even in transformation, as soon as we’ve made a shift, we’re like, “On to the … The next thing to work on.” We’re always looking for the next thing to learn, the next thing to do and the next person to be. Not seeing the beauty in the person exists right now, flawed and all, if we even define it as flawed.
Dani: Right. Perfectly imperfect. I heard that somewhere. I love it. I always carry it around with me and think of everybody that way, which is just a beautiful way to think about it. I think when it comes to future and past, what is coming up for me so much these days is how much I, and I think humans in general, but I’m noticing it with myself and with clients, what we do is we take the past and not only are we carrying it with us, all this baggage going on a trip, but we throw it out. We project it into our future, so that our past defines who we can be in the future. It’s this continuum of taking it all out and projecting it all onto the future.
Really and the way to get through that and the way to stop doing that and the way to realize that your past doesn’t have to be your future is the power of the present moment. Just like you were saying. That’s like the key that unlocks, “Oh, wait. I’m doing this out of habit. Oh, wait. I don’t really believe that old story to be true. Or think I need to repeat it again. I’m just in a habit here. I was going through the motions because I thought I was trying to get there or because I was just in a habit of it or whatever. Instead of just being present and realizing that this moment has the possibility for anything I want to create in this moment.”
Candace: I love that. I love that.
Natalie: Another thing I know we’ve talked about before, but that’s related to the present moment is the whole when you’re receiving guidance from Spirit, that being for that moment, Spirit isn’t necessarily telling you anything predicting the future. Spirit is telling you what you need to hear right now that will bring about action from you in that moment that will allow you to follow the path that you’re destined for if people believe in destiny.
Dani: I love that.
Candace: For sure. We’ve had that experience many times with just us, asking for guidance. Then being shown a particular path to take, and it was good for that moment. Then whether it’s the next day or it’s a week later, we’re still clinging on to that past moment. “Well, Spirit said, well, so and so said this was the choice I needed to make.” And never even considering the fact that maybe you should check in again ’cause this is a new day and a new moment. Things changes.
Dani: Yeah. I also think that so often we want Spirit to just show us, “Okay, where am I going to be in five years? Just lay it out for me. I want the big picture.” Spirit already automatically knows where we want to go, where we’re destined to go if that’s part of it, which I believe that it is. I believe destiny and free-will work together. I don’t really know how, but I know that they do somehow.
If Spirit just had that big picture and showed you yourself on the stage; yourself, whatever, your path to get there would automatically be different than what Spirit knows you need, which is if you will just listen and do this thing right now, do this thing today even if it doesn’t make sense or whatever. That’s … what we call following those breadcrumbs, following soulspiration, if you will, is in a moment.
It’s cleaning up your bedroom. Can you tell I’ve heard that one before? Right? You know? Hypothetically. Declutter. Clean up a little bit is often the same. I’m even with Spirit like, “What do I need to do? You need to please help me. Tell me.” They’re like, “We told you three days ago. Clean up your space.” But it’s not often what we want to hear. Or what we think is a logical connection from A to B, which is where we think we want to go. Often, it’s go to the art museum or call that friend you haven’t called or clean up your room.
But if we follow it, then it just brings us this satisfaction and this just takes us to the next little breadcrumb. It’s so beautiful. Again, it’s so related to the present moment. Just if you’ll just be here now.
And my favorite question for Spirit, and I know you do this too, Candace, ’cause I know you’ve talked about it, and I’m sure you do too, Natalie, it’s like, “Spirit, what’s mine to do now? What’s mine to do, not in three weeks, but today?” We’re like, “What’s mine to do?”
Natalie: It’s even though as you were saying, Dani, you’re like, “Where will I be in five years?” That’s such a human thing to do because that’s just showing you how caught up we are in the freaking future. Why does it matter? Why does it matter where I will be in five years? What difference does it make to now?
I think … it totally epitomizes ’cause we all do that. We’re all like, “Where will I be? When will I do this?” And it doesn’t matter. It’s irrelevant. Right now, in this moment, it’s irrelevant.
Candace: t’s like there’s an element to it that we aren’t enough as we are in this moment. “I’m not enough. I need to be this. I’m not enough. I need to do that.”
I think part of being intentionally present is accepting yourself as you are in this moment, whether that is … I don’t even want to say flawed because it’s not. It’s just where you are. It’s just what you’re currently learning or what you’re currently experiencing.
I think that for me, that’s a really sticky point. How do I get okay with myself when my life isn’t what I want it to be?
Dani: Yeah.
Candace: I mean I don’t have that answer. It’s something that I’m working on, especially with all of this stuff. Right? Realizing all of this, and that one of the keys to this is really being okay with who I am right now. It’s a work in progress. It’s a work in progress. Yeah.
Dani: Always. We’re always a work in progress. What you were saying before is, too, it’s that it really drives home that it’s all journey. Like, “Where am I going to be in five years?” Natalie’s like, “It doesn’t matter.” It just reinforces: it’s all journey, people. It’s not all about the destination. It’s like if you don’t enjoy the journey to get there, you’re not going to enjoy it once you’re there anyway, whatever there is.
Natalie: There is no there, is there? That’s the point. Yeah. That’s the whole point. There is no there.
Dani: Right.
Natalie: There’s journey and then death.
Candace: Right. Which is then a whole new journey.
Dani: Yeah.
Candace: You had a pretty amazing channeled message about that or vision, didn’t you, Dani?
Dani: Did I?
Candace: About the journey to the statue.
Dani: Oh, yeah. I did.
Candace: Did you want to share that?
Dani: I don’t know if I can remember it, but it was about … Okay. I was picturing that view that I’ve only seen in the movies, and there’s a mountain top in like Rio where there’s this big, huge statue of Jesus, just looking down on the city. There’s always a plane flying by it. You have this aerial view of it. It’s gorgeous. It’s so majestic.
Spirit was saying, “You think you just want to be at the statue. You think you just want to arrive magically at the destination just looking at the statue and being there.” Spirit was saying, “If you could only be in the jungle and the forest as you walk up that mountain and see all the beauty and everything that has to work together to create this ecosystem and that you’re a part of.”
It was partly about unity and partly just about all the beauty and the joy. They even showed me something that is decomposing and becoming fuel and energy for the other creatures and other life. It grows. They’re saying, “You’re complaining about walking up this mountain when life is just having miracle after miracle all around you. You’re just walking with your backpack, complaining ‘And why am I not at the top yet?'” It’s like, “Well, you silly, child. You’re already in paradise. You’re already sitting at the foot. This moment is just as powerful as that. It’s just the same thing as that, if you can look at it that way, if you can see it the way we see it.”
Seeing through the eyes of Spirit is another thing. Right? In the present moment that maybe we can do. It might be hard to do for a whole life, but it’s one of the things I’ve been asking lately is how does Spirit see this? It is always in the present moment from really high up.
Candace: Always with love.
Dani: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for reminding me of that ’cause it was so funny. You just have these what seem like revelations.
Dani: Then you forget. Like, “That was so yesterday. Today’s a new day. I’m striving and doing whatever.” You just forget all about the revelation that you thought changed your life. It just changed that moment. Then you go back into your routine or whatever.
Candace: For sure. For sure. That’s something that I’m … Another thing that’s on my to-do list: stop forgetting the revelations. Come back and revisit them.
I do think though that when you have them, it brings about a new awareness. You might go back to your old habits. You might go back to your old way of being and forget about it, but I feel like most of the time, there’s something to come back and remind you, and you’re like, “Oh, yeah.” Then you almost get it on a little bit deeper level. Then you probably let go of it a little. Then it comes back. And you get it on a little bit deeper level.
Dani: I agree. I think it’s never wasted. I think it’s all accumulative. I think a lot of times it works in the background even though we don’t realize it’s always working.
Candace: Right.
Dani: There’s another thought on present moment that I find really powerful and that Spirit has really been driving home lately. It’s this. That is that we talk a lot about manifestation and what we’re creating and things like that. We have these goals, of course, desires, things that we want. We want these things. If we’re really evolved, what we really want is already in terms of “I want to feel this way. I want to feel that way.” I know that’s Natalie. Right?
So many of us, our wants and desires are these physical things or material a lot of times. Or a lot of people it’s feelings. That’s okay. Either way what we really want is whatever we want because we believe it will make us feel a certain way.
What Spirit’s being showing me about the present moment, about the part of the power of the present moment is that I can be in the present moment, I can be at the foot of that statue in Brazil. In the present moment, I can take myself anywhere. In the present moment, I can close my eyes and talk to Spirit and say, “I can feel the energy of worthiness come through, fulfill every cell in my body and just sit and feel it.”
In any moment, any of these elated feelings that we think we want, we can go into ourselves and have it right now. Some people call that “instant manifestation,” but it’s so the power of the present moment, but yes, it speeds up manifestation. Yes. We’re sending out this vibe that is pre-paving what we really want, instead of what we don’t want. It is all of those things, but I think that we get so caught up in what we call reality and what we’re looking around seeing and the limitations and things that we think that brings with us, when really all we’re seeing right now is stuff we’ve created in the past.
In this moment, we can literally create anything we want. Anything. Anything. And just feel it and experience it right now. We can’t always do that if we’re in a place that’s really struggling or really hard or heavy. But in the morning coming off of meditation, you can get into those. You can play around with different ways that help you be in that feeling place. Just even practicing at a couple of minutes at a time.
I just feel like that again is cumulative. It just activates that energy and let’s you know it’s there. Does all these wonderful things for you.
Candace: By experiencing that and doing that in the present moment, number one, you are not focused on the future and striving to get to someplace or be something else. Number two, I think if that is something that you practice, the more often you do it, the more second nature it becomes. Each present moment is laying that brick to be that thing, that feeling, that person that you desire.
Dani: Yeah. I love it ’cause it works on so many levels, right?
Candace: Yeah.
Dani: It works for right now ’cause you’re feeling freaking amazing right now in the present moment, which is awesome. You’re also laying those bricks and calling in more. Yeah.
Candace: Yeah. I love that. For sure.
We’re talking about being present. We’re talking about creating and being intentional and knowing that each choice you make right now is what you are creating for your future.
If you make that part of your awareness, but you also know, just like what you were talking about, maybe not so much going to a feeling, but if you have goals or wishes or desires for the future … We’re only human. Not everybody’s going to be content to sit and-
Natalie: And plan.
Candace: … be spiritually enlightened and have that be their entire life. People want to travel. People want a nice a house. People want things in life that can only come from setting goals and working towards them.
The question for me is how do you balance that? How do you balance the goals or the dreams or the desires that you have in your life with being present? I guess part of it is just being intentional; making choices that are working towards what you want. But how much time? How much time do you spend visioning and journaling and thinking about the future? Or sitting down and setting goals or any of those things that we tend to spend way too much time doing?
I guess that is my question. How much time? How do you balance that? Do you guys have any thoughts on that?
Natalie: I don’t have a freaking clue. I think that there’s two points to there being present. It’s one having gratitude for what exists now, so I think that that is automatically going to bring about more of what you want because you took the moment to appreciate the things that you want in the now. Then that is all part of bringing in more of that.
Even by being present, you’re not taking away from the fact that you’re not planning. You’re actually just choosing to plan this way. Look at what you’ve got now. Then what do I want more of? How do I want to bring about more of this? Then take steps in each moment to do more of that.
But then yes, we are also planners. We do want to have some sort of, in our humanness, you’re going to want to feel like you have some form of direction. I don’t know the balance. I don’t know the answer to be honest.
Candace: I think that my thoughts on that are to be intentional with that time maybe? Whether you’re sitting down in the morning after meditation and deciding to vision at that time or journal at that time about the things that you want more of in your life. Because I don’t think you can go without thinking of the future and what you’re working towards. Right?
Natalie: Yeah-
Candace: Because we’re not all sitting on a mountaintop meditating all day long. Go ahead.
Natalie: I think that you can be present and intentional by deciding that you want to spend some time journaling. If that you’re feeling called to or feeling the need for that direction or structure or goal or something that you want to set your sights on, then you can be intentional and decide that in that moment, you want to spend your time trying to get that clarity so that you can take inspired … or in the moment action because you really know what that looks like.
I think that they don’t have to be either/or. Being present can involve thinking about what you want from your life so that you are … The words are all so similar that I think I’m going round in a circle, but…
Candace: Be more focused with your attention when you are being intentional in the moment.
Natalie: Yeah.
Candace: That’s kind of what I got from what you just said. It made perfect sense.
Natalie: Did it? Okay. Good. Okay.
Candace: I didn’t think you were talking in circles.
Natalie: Thank you. If anyone listening is still with us, you get a gold star.
Dani: They’re definitely being intentional with their focus to follow all that.
I don’t have an answer either. It won’t surprise anybody to know. This is one of the things that I do go back and forth with and find myself going back and forth with, but Spirit seems to indicate that this is a battle that is more made up in the mind then needs to be and that there doesn’t have to be this push/pull with this quite as much; like Spirit and the human part of us.
Earlier … maybe it came off like I was like, “Oh, the more evolved people are just all about the feelings and sitting on a mountain top.” Part of me does do that and look at that. That’s just a more elevated way to look at it.
If what we want is travel and what we want is a beautiful home with extra rooms and a wing for the relatives or whatever to come visit, all of that is great. We want it because it’s going to make us feel a certain way. We can feel that way right now, and we can feel that way while we’re daydreaming about having all that stuff. How ever you get there doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you’re focusing on a pile of hundred dollar bills or a whole room full of them. Or if you’re focusing on vitality in every cell of your body.
Whatever wakes you up and makes you connect emotionally to that place that is all that matters. Whatever does it for you, then that’s perfectly perfect.
I think that I’ll close with a quote from Eckhart Tolle. He says, “The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present.”
Dani: That’s beautiful.
Candace: I like that one.
Dani: Couldn’t a’ said it better myself.
Candace: All right.
Natalie: Thank you, ladies.
Candace: Thank you. Love you, girls.
Natalie: See you later.
Dani: Bye.