Let’s start this blog with the book ‘The power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle. The book highlights the spiritual concepts of being in the present moment and references Christianity and Buddhist philosophy.
To conclude, the book isn’t efficient, stating that we can somehow eliminate the past pain by being in the moment. It reinforces the idea that the present moment is all we have on nearly every page. This is the way to spiritual whoo hoo enlightenment.
I disagree with Eckhart Tolle; the present moment is one factor, as Marcus Aurelius states in ‘Meditations’. But you have to combine the present with the past and future to have solidarity. The past must be acknowledged by making peace with it and learning from the previous lessons, not by masking the past by focusing on the NOW. Equally important is the future, as you don’t want to scare yourself shitless by making plans that go into the next 10-20 years. Try the near future on the next 3-6 months at a time. If we only focus on the present moment, businesses will fail, we wouldn’t have a good economy or social structure, and unless you’re loaded with money, most of us will end up broke or worse on the streets.
So, how does this blog fit in with hope? If we accept the past, present, and future, we can create hope moving forward in life. Many of the great schools of philosophy concluded that life is suffering, from existentialist, Buddhism and Stoicism. Great thinkers of the past acknowledged that finding meaning that was bigger than adversity gives us meaning. So that we can hope for a better future, purpose can be found through the means of a good cause backed with good ethical behaviour and morals. This motivates us to go for something that we care about/love with the support of a good foundation of people.
Psychologists and philosophers have understood that the mind is constructed in two parts, logic and emotion. Daniel Kahneman wrote the book ‘Thinking fast and slow’ dedicated to this subject matter. In a nutshell, we are run by emotions, but reason helps navigate us in the right direction. We need incentives and rewards to keep us emotionally stimulated to make the actions easier whilst aligned to logic.
To make the process easier, we have to change our lifestyle and habits positively. This can be achieved by changing our environment, having better experiences, and surrounding ourselves with people that uplift us. These are essential factors that support to creating better hope in the future.
For example, if you know you need to exercise, but you dread the idea of going to the gym to lift iron 5x per week. Then choose an exercise that uplifts you, e.g. dancing or football. You be around like-minded people, the environment will be a lot more upbeat, you’ll have a better experience than being in a sweaty gym. The focus should be having fun doing the exercise, and the by-product is a good workout that leads to you being healthier.
The mind naturally needs to stretch further by hoping for something better or continuously improve. Learn to embrace the past, present, and future to positively influence your behaviours, beliefs, and action. Remember to hope for the best and be kind to yourself; it helps you remain motivates when times get tough.