You’re Safe Right Now

The present moment is forever. There will always be a present moment. It will always be here for us.

I also believe that the present moment is safe, 99.99% of the time. Moments of actual pain are very rare in our lives. Much of the reason people suffer is because they think about potentially painful moments for much longer durations of time than the duration of the actual pain itself.

By developing the skill of staying in the present moment, we can avoid the (psychological and emotional) pain we believe will come in the future. Present moment awareness can even bring relief when we’re anticipating the absolute worst-case scenario.

To illuminate my point, let’s look at a very extreme situation in regards to mindfulness: Going to the electric chair. This scenario is grim, I know. But, if we examine that entire experience, our dedication to present-moment mindfulness will be fortified.

When someone is sentenced to die by capital punishment, we interpret their plight as “they’re going to the electric chair now,” and we sum it up in our minds. Humans like stories. The way we make sense of things is by tying them together into one story. But, stories are just that, stories. Stories are mental processes we use to make it easier for our minds to understand.

When you look closer, the condemned person was never “going to the electric chair.” When the person was sentenced to their punishment, they weren’t going to the electric chair, they were standing in a courtroom. They weren’t going to the electric chair when they hugged their loved ones goodbye. They were hugging their loved ones. When the prisoner was sitting in their prison cell we would have described them as, “waiting to be executed” again. But, once again, they might have been thinking about the electric chair but, in reality, they were just sitting in a prison cell.

Even the description of the place as a “prison cell” is a matter of analysis and labeling. With only the present moment in mind, the place they were sitting is just “a room” or even, “someplace with walls,” or “someplace with structures that block the sun.” When you go to the doctor and sit in the waiting room, do you think about the history or purpose of the building? Do you think “I am now sitting in a structure built by humans in 1968” or “I am sitting in a building zoned as a commercial building in the town of Springfield?” You absolutely don’t think about those things. The same can be said about the prisoner. The only reason the description of their dwelling is important is because the prisoner made it so. Without that judgment, the person is just sitting.

To bring our example to its end, we can look at the prisoner’s walk to the electric chair on the day of their execution. Even then, the person is not going to the electric chair at any given moment. When they are ten feet away from the electric chair, what they are doing in that moment is just “taking a step,” or “lifting their foot up” and then “putting their foot down.”

Three seconds before being electrocuted is also not the same as being electrocuted. When the person is, literally, sitting in the electric chair they are still not being electrocuted until the lever is pulled. Three seconds before being electrocuted the person is not being electrocuted. When a person is sitting in the electric chair three seconds before being electrocuted, they are really only just “sitting.”

Let me do you a favor by bringing us through a very common fear: financial ruin.

We are all terrified about being financially destitute. We envision many painful experiences as a result of being poor. But, when examined through the lens of present-moment mindfulness, we can see that there is no such action as “being poor.” Please follow me.

Say, you are homeless, living “on the street.” Even if you were sitting in a cardboard box, you would really only be “sitting.” The fact that the “structure” you are sitting in was not intended to be a housing is our analysis. Sitting in a mansion or sitting in a slum are both just sitting.

If you were hungry, your analysis of your situation would be that “because this and this happened, I lost all of my money and now I am hungry because I cannot afford to buy food.” However, moment by moment, the act of sitting without having eaten is still just sitting. Just as sitting while married and sitting when divorced are also both just sitting.

The same could be said if you ended up eating a meal at a homeless shelter. Everyone’s analysis of that meal would be as part of a story, “they lost all of their money because of an unlucky situation so they can no longer afford to buy their own food. Now they are eating a bowl of soup that was purchased by someone other than them so they can sustain themselves.” However, at any single moment, none of that is actually happening. At one of those single moments, the person was simply bringing a spoonful of soup to their lips. Then, the moment after that moment they would be tasting the soup in their mouths. Then, swallowing the soup. It can alter your perception when you consider the fact that, when the wealthiest person in the world eats a spoonful of soup, their moment-by-moment actions are exactly the same as the world’s poorest person: bringing a spoonful of soup to their lips, tasting the soup and then, swallowing the soup.

This example ties my point together. The world’s wealthiest person is never the world’s wealthiest person. Being the world’s wealthiest person is not an action. Being successful is also not an action. Nor is being poor or being unsuccessful. These descriptions and labels don’t exist moment by moment. While a successful person can spend time relishing their past conquests, if they are reminiscing about the past while sitting, they are still only sitting. They were not successful at that moment. They are sitting.

Remember this the next time you are worried. Understand that the things you are worried about will never actually happen because those types of things don’t happen in the present moment. They are stories we tell ourselves while we are sitting.

Don’t forget that you are really only sitting.

Burak Uzun is an award-winning writer and a Certified Meditation Teacher.

Burak Uzun also co-wrote a feature film called Team Marco, which was featured in over fifty film festivals around the globe and was distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Please feel free to reach out to Burak here.

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