Personal growth: Avoiding the trap of psychological time May 14, 2017
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal growth, Living in the Now.Tags: Eckhart Tolle, inspiration, life, personal development potential, personal growth, philosophy, The Power of Now, writing
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By Dennis Mellersh
It is almost impossible for us to be happy in our current life if we remain anchored to the counterproductive habit of focusing on “psychological time” according to Eckhart Tolle.
Psychological time as Tolle describes it is an artificial intellectual construct in which we use our present moment, or the Now, to focus on the past, which we can no longer physically access, and the future, which is also impossible to physically experience.
The past is totally inaccessible, even though its influence exists in the present, and the future can only be influenced by what we do right now in the present moment.
The past inevitably contains some actual disappointments and the future might be full of potential disappointments; both time periods feature many “what-if” questions.
Tolle suggests that we can ask ourselves a simple question to see if we are being “taken over” by psychological time and dwelling on the past and the future, instead of fully experiencing the present moment:
“Is there joy, ease, and lightness in what I am doing? If there isn’t, then time [the past and the future] is covering up the present moment, and life is perceived as a burden or a struggle,” Tolle suggests.
With the present moment darkened both by past disappointments and regrets, and also by thoughts of potential future negative events it is not surprising there is little joy in the present.
Tolle believes that “When you act out of present-moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love – even the most simple action. (1)
In contrast with psychological time, when you are fully involved in the present, in the Now, perhaps working on finishing a project that fully absorbs your attention right now, you are in “clock time” according to Tolle.
(1) Eckhart Tolle, Practicing The Power of Now, New World Library, Novato, California, 1999, 142 pages
Personal development goals can be frustrated by the ego February 23, 2012
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Ego Management.Tags: Eckhart Tolle, ego management, focus on the present, personal development, The Power of Now, the role of the ego
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In our quest to understand personal development and thereby improve ourselves through reading and general research, the ego and its role within our personality patterns is something that constantly surfaces.
The more we read about the psychology of self-improvement, self-help and personal development in general, the more definitions and explanations of the ego we will uncover.
Some of the explanations of the role the ego plays in personality and human behaviour are quite complex and technical. Whatever the explanation, however, we know that the ego is a force to be dealt with and our research often leads to us look for answers in how to manage the ego, how to control anger with the ego, in general, how to deal with the ego and its influence on us. We seem to realize intuitively that the ego is a somewhat independent force living within us.
One of the interesting views of the ego is that of Eckhart Tolle, who (and this is a very simplified paraphrasing) regards the ego as the constantly chattering voice in our heads that will not shut up no matter how hard we try to focus and “stay in the moment.” For Tolle, the ego does not like being satisfied, with, or just accepting the present moment, but rather tends to focus on the future or the past.
The ego in this view tends to look at what should be and what should have been, rather than on dealing maturely and objectively with what is.
In his book, The Power of Now, Tolle makes the following observation: “The basic ego patterns are designed to combat its deep-seated fear and sense of lack. They are resistance, control, power, greed, defense, attack. Some of the ego’s strategies are extremely clever, yet they never truly solve any of its problems, simply because the ego itself is the problem.”
In Tolle’s view the ego’s tendency to focus on the past and the future, and to avoid dealing with the present moment, makes us slaves to time with the result that: “The more you are focussed on time – past and future – the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.”
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