A recent article in the Ottawa Citizen discusses coping with the stress of the uncertainty of the future. It talked in particular about awaiting a possible outcome that could be very bad and compared it to Ottawa Mayor Larry O'Brien's situation as he awaits a ruling on the charges of influence-peddling laid against him.

Certainly in times like these, with a bad economic forecast and the fact that we never know what the future holds, many people face potentially bad situations like: layoffs, health concerns and the problems that tighter finances pose on families and relationships.

While this article brings to light the fact that we have no influence over many events that happen in the future and that we must find ways to cope with life as we wait for potentially bad news. I feel that it only glances over the most important factor that you can only be sure of the moment you have right now.

When you are worrying about something that has yet to come, you are giving your time and energy to something that does not exist and may never come to pass. Worry puts you in the future. You will never have control over the future. Worrying about it wastes the only thing you can control which is how you spend your present moment.

In a very similar way, people waste a great deal of their time and energy dwelling on the past. It could be that the possible outcome they await in the future is a result of actions taken or not taken in the past. They may think, “If only I had...” or “I wish I had not...” Again, you have no ability to change the events of the past. By dwelling on them, you waste the present moment, which is the only place you have the power to influence.

The beauty of Network Spinal Analysis (NSA) care is that it causes you to focus your attention on your breath, the movement in your body and your energy. These are things that only exist in the present. When your focus is here, you are living in the moment where you have the power to decide and make a difference. In fact, any time you focus your attention on some action occurring in your body, you are in the present moment or “the Now.” Just really truly observing what is going on in your body in terms of tension and sensation will always bring you into the present.

With NSA we work with observing the tension that supports our continued feeling and judgments of events from the past. We also observe the tension that supports the fear of events that may never come to pass in the future. By simply observing how much tension and energy it takes in the body to support judgments of the past and fear of the future, we bring ourselves into the “Now”.

In an entrainment, a typical session done in NSA, a light touch to the body, stimulates the nervous system to self assess and self organize.

This means that the light contact makes the brain observe what is happening in the body and decide whether it is appropriate for the current needs of the body. When the brain finds that the body has been supporting an inappropriate amount of tension and tied up large amounts of energy it needs to make a decision. It could be liberated for immediate use or it could be held to keep you stuck in the past or future.

You will be able to observe in the present, how much energy it takes to support your fears of the future. You will feel how much better and more productive you can be when you use this energy to take action in the present to support your current needs. You may also, in the present moment, see the events of the past in a different light and change the story you have about them. The action you take in the present, can actually release the hold of the past over you.

Of course you should learn from the past and plan for the future. You do this in the present moment to ensure that your life if following the path you choose. What's done is done and what will come will come. What you do right now is your choice.

If you would like to learn more about observing your energy, movement and breath in the present moment, come to one of our Introduction to Somato Respiratory Integration (SRI) Workshops or a Discover Workshop. There you will learn strategies and exercises to stay in the present moment so you can make choices that support the direction of your life.