How to give your heart to the present moment without judging
Your experience in the present moment
The act of surrendering to the present moment requires letting go of resisting what is happening in our lives. As we do, the layers of judgment melt away and we discover the perfection of the present moment. Our judgments have a way of obscuring the gift that is offered to us in our moment-to-moment experience. Suffering occurs if we allow our judgment to get in the way of surrendering in the moment. Can you identify with this? Have you wanted to escape the present moment because it didn’t live up to your expectations? How did you overcome your resistance?
If we judge the present because it does not meet our expectations, we will suffer. The ego will try to convince us that this moment is not what we wanted, so we try to resist it. But we put our happiness on hold when we adopt this way of thinking because life is trying to unfold through us. We have little understanding of why things happen and our limited perception sees only what is happening in front of us. We cannot know if an unwanted experience is likely to benefit us in the future.
Therefore, surrendering to the present moment without judgment requires letting go of our resistance to how things should be. The ego likes to dominate our thoughts, and in doing so, we experience fear, anxiety, anger, and resistance to something we don’t want. But if we recognize the ego for what it is; a saboteur trying to undermine us, we can distance ourselves from getting entangled in his web. The way out of the ego trap is to refocus our attention on the present moment and take notice of our surroundings. For example, when you’re caught up in thoughts of despair and judgment, thank your mind for trying to distract you and reconnect with the present moment.
To achieve this, focus on your breath and the sensations it creates within your body. Observe the objects around the room you are in. For example, one practice I often engage in when I’m stuck in negative thoughts is to walk around the room and touch different objects, noticing their texture and the sensations they evoke in me. I try to be aware of my breathing and anchor myself in the present moment instead of allowing my mind to drag me into the future or the past. Your present moment experience does not need to be perfect, but by surrendering to it, you loosen its grip and allow life to unfold through you. Life has a good handle on its role because it has a resume that spans 14 billion years of experience. You and I only have decades of experience, so we must trust that life knows what it is doing despite our resistance.
Judgment is based on the ego
Are you comfortable with these ideas so far? Can you see that trying to manipulate the present moment delays your happiness and prolongs your suffering? I am not asking you to be apathetic about what is going on in your life. I call on you to give up your thoughts about what shouldn’t be happening and trust a higher intelligence to make it work as it should. Judgment is based on the ego, which thrives on controlling a situation over which it has no power. In contrast, the spirit (consciousness based on the heart), observes what is happening and does not demand anything of you. We experience suffering when the voice of the ego dominates our inner conversation, without us realizing it. We could perceive the voice of the ego as our own because we have not learned to distinguish it from the voice of the spirit.
To illustrate with an example, when you were young, you may have had one more dominant parent compared to the other. Naturally, he will learn to distinguish the role of each father in his life, that is, strict father versus tolerant father. In my case, my father had a strong disciplinary role in my life, while my mother was very encouraging and supportive. Each parent had a unique role to play in my life. Therefore, I liked the fatherhood of my father with the voice of the ego and the role of my mother with the voice of the spirit. You may have your own way of discerning the difference between ego and spirit. When you understand how each one communicates with you, it will help you distinguish truth from falsehood.
Surrender is an act of love
Surrendering to the present moment without judgment requires anchoring ourselves to what is happening here and now. Surrender is an act of love because we trust that life will give us what we need instead of believing that we know what is best for us. Without a doubt, we know what is best for us to feed and nourish ourselves. But at the level of personal growth and expansion of the soul, we are limited in our knowledge and that is why life intercedes, to give us experiences outside of our comfort zone.
To put this in perspective, I never imagined that my father would pass away when I was 26 years old. I never thought that at 29 years old I would be diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. These experiences and others pushed me to grow and evolve far beyond my comfort zone and taught me the power of trust in life. I was taught the art of surrender because what I thought was good for me was not necessarily valuable for my soul’s evolution. So now, I invite you to give your heart to the present moment without judgment. Trust that every experience from this moment on will be perfectly orchestrated for your highest good. You may not see the lessons right away, but if you trust that knowledge, you will look back, knowing that it all happened for your highest good.
Considering this, I invite you to focus on how you can give yourself to the present moment in your daily life. What can you do to be more grounded in the here and now? Earlier, I gave you an example of an exercise that involved noticing your breath and touching objects in the room. Use this practice to connect with your now experience. Other helpful ways involve keeping a journal and meditating. Whatever you decide, take back your power instead of letting your mind lead you to judgment and despair when things don’t go your way. After all, when we give our hearts to the present moment, we discover the essence of life coming together to bring the beauty and majesty of life into existence. If we resist these moments, we will miss the miracles that unfold before our eyes.