Presence

We need not experience a recurring emotional charge in order to learn from past mistakes. Instead, we can be present with the emotion when it occurs, fully feel it, and let it go. We can then contemplate what just happened and make a mental note of future intentions. In other words, we simply learn to fully process emotions before thinking about their meaning. By so doing, we will be more able act out of present moment awareness rather than out of a storm of emotional turmoil. In turn, we will be more likely to make rational decisions and bring forth the desired result. In contrast, if we were to act from the emotion, decision-making would be clouded by the past thought/emotion experience, leading us down a far different path. I went into much greater detail about processing emotions in book one. In this book, I demonstrate that living in the present moment is not only the place to digest emotions, it is also the place to take action in the way that serves us best. Moreover, the present is all there is. Everything else is mind chatter. On presence Carl Jung states, "to be wholly of the present means to be fully conscious of one's existence as a man, it requires the most intensive and extensive consciousness, with a minimum of unconsciousness... He alone is modern who is fully conscious of the present." In the remainder of this book I will explain what it means to be "fully conscious of the present," as Jung puts it, and provide examples of benefits to be gained by doing so.