Empowering the Present

“I’ve always had two or more tracks running in my head.

The pleasurable one was thinking forward to some

future scene. Imagining what should be, planning on

the edge of fantasy. The other played underneath with

all too realistic fragments of what I should have done.

There it was in perfect microcosm, the past and the

future coming together to squeeze out the present—

which is the only time in which we can be fully alive.”

—Gloria Steinem

Recently I was talking to a young friend who was terrified that her newly purchased business was going to fail and her future would be in ruins. Her concerns are well founded, and, after listening for a while, I asked, “Honey, can you manage only what needs to be done right now?” After some hesitation, she answered, “Yesss…” My friend had fallen into what I call the Future Hole. Her fear of a possible future was paralyzing her ability to be positive now. The enormity of possible future losses was also causing her to panic. How well I recognize the Future Hole/Panic scenario from my own life. Do you?

Excerpted from How to Stay Upbeat in a Beat Down World by Sue Patton Thoele. Available on Amazon.