“With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I love now.”

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

This is the second in three pieces that uses the Ghosts that appear in Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” as inspiration. If you missed the first piece about the ghost of Christmas Past then you can still read it here.

The second of the Ghosts to visit Ebenezer Scrooge was the Ghost of Christmas Present, and I invite you this week to play with the concept of being in the present.

One of the dictionary definitions of the word ghost is “a duplicated image in a defected telescope or television picture.” Maybe you’ve had the experience of plucking up courage to do something or talk to someone and find that it really wasn’t as bad as you imagined. That is often because the image or story that we have projected about the future wasn’t particularly accurate.

I’ll talk more about the future in next weeks message but often you can scare yourself in the present with the story of what the future brings.

Maybe you’ve constructed an entire story around what will happen if you stand up in front of the group – it’ll be a story unique to you, but perhaps it includes the audience not liking your message, the throwing of rotten tomatoes and generally being forced to leave the country!

Or perhaps the story you’ve constructed about asking that person out is that they will say no and then mount an entire award winning international marketing campaign to advertise the fact they said no. 😉

Yes, I know that they are extreme examples but it’s the story told before hand that leads to comments such as “It was nowhere near as bad as I imagined” or “I don’t know what I was worried about” when someone actually goes and does the activity they were afraid of doing.

One of the cats that shares my home has set places around the house where he pauses and checks that there is nothing about to pounce on him around the next corner.

In reality the only thing that is likely to be ready to pounce is one of the other cats in a playful mood but he still checks before going on his way, presumably in case there are any assassins or cat eating animals in the present moment.

One day maybe he’ll decide that the check is no longer needed but he doesn’t let it keep him penned into one location, as he checks and then carries on his way.

This week I invite you to play with something that you’ve been putting off but the only thing that has stopped you is fear and we’re going to use similar checks that my cat does as he goes about his travels.

It probably goes without saying, but pick something to play with where there is no life threatening consequences – standing in the middle of the road as a speeding lorry heads in your direction is not the time to play!

Before you start “check in” with how you are feeling now, how you choose to do that is up to you. You may like to mentally physically do a scan to see how all your body is feeling; maybe you just want to ask yourself or perhaps you know to do something else.

If you find that there is any fear firstly you’ll probably find it helpful to remember to breath while playing with this – always something I encourage 😉 Generally slowing and deepening your breath can have a big impact on how you feel.

Having done that let’s play, at this very moment are there any life threatening assassins with you? At the present second is there any human eating animals that are physically going to pounce?

If the answer is yes to either question then my suggestion would be that you have other things to contend with other than playing with this! Most likely (unless there is a rash of assassins or lots of escaped man-eating animals I’m unaware off) you’ll find that at this present time you are actually quite safe and OK.

Take the next small step and again check if there are any life threatening assassins or man-eating animals in this moment?

Providing the present does not have that threat check your breathing and take the next small step. Now check if there is any assassins or man-eating animals.

Keep going taking small steps and checking if there is any physical danger in any given moment.

For example, Jane wanted to explain a new idea to a team at work but has previously kept quiet because the idea of talking to a group scared her. At the next meeting she remembered to breath but also checked if there were any assassins or man-eating animals in the room.

As the meeting agenda went on she kept checking if there were any assassins as each discussion point passed, until eventually the question “does anyone else have anything they want to add?” was asked. No assassins or man-eating animals so with a deep breathe Jane heard herself say “yes”. Still no assassins or man-eating animals so she went on to outline her idea.

In case you were wondering, the idea was liked and her line manager gave her some really positive feedback about how great it was to hear her contribute in the team meetings as Jane has such great ideas she can share. The world didn’t end, nobody threw rotten tomatoes and she didn’t have to hunt around for her passport because she was being forced to leave the country. 😉

Remember we are only playing so if it takes you a couple of attempts to get to any particular next step, as there are no assassins or man-eating animals about to pounce, just start again. For example, if you are playing with the concept of making a sales call maybe it takes you a couple of attempts to dial 10 numbers before you ring the final 11th and the phone starts to ring.

Have a week living in the present minus assassins and man-eating animals!

Love

Jen

This was originally posted on www.YourChangingDirection.com