Why is it that you have more energy when you're in the present moment?
Why is it so important to be in the present moment?
To be full of life,
Full of enthusiasm,
Full of inspiration,
To really connect to other people because connecting takes energy.
We give energy and we receive energy when we're connecting.
A lot of the work I do helps people have more energy because burnout is one of the top problems of the 21st century,
Especially successful people in the 21st century.
They stop being successful because at a certain point they're just so burnt out or they don't even want all the success and all the stuff they have because they're just burnt out.
So a question I get is,
Why is it important to be present and to be in the present?
And the answer is that it's the only way you have energy.
Energy is important because energy is the building blocks to make our wishes come true.
Where your attention is is where your energy goes and when we put our attention into nothing,
Into nowhere,
There's nothing to interact with.
So how it works is you want to put your energy into something and you get energy back.
You put your energy,
You love a person and then there's love to you.
You nurture a plant and the plant grows.
There's an exchange.
When you put your energy into a black hole or a void,
None of that happens.
When we put our energy into the past or into the future,
It's like putting that energy into a total black hole because the past and the future don't actually exist.
The past and the future,
They're kind of like fake concepts of the mind.
They're not actually part of reality.
Only the present exists.
So if you're putting your energy into a black hole like your mind is always in the past or the future,
It just burns you out because it's like you plant the seed there except it's a fake seed.
Nothing ever grows.
There's no back and forth.
So we might think that we're doing meditation to change the future but we're actually only changing the present.
Only the present exists.
So we just change the present step by step throughout time that our lives change because we there's only one time.
We only live in one time and that's the present.
I would even say that after you pass away,
There's still only the present.
It's just a different kind of experience that you're having.
So every change happens here and now.
It doesn't actually happen in the future.
A question that the people who take classes with me like to ask themselves is,
Will my future self thank me for this?
And really it's will my current self thank me for this because there's only your current self.
So when your attention is thinking about the past like that breakup you once had or had I taken that job or had I done things differently or when you're really anxious with fear about what will happen,
Your energy just disappears.
It's like energy goodbye.
Energy I don't need you because again you can only interact with what exists.
We have a lot of resources.
You have a lot of resources.
I have a lot of resources.
We all have a lot of resources and they're always in the present.
So the most important task,
The most important work you can do is to accumulate energy.
You accumulate energy through your attention.
So why do we sit with the breath?
People are like,
Elizabeth,
This is pointless.
I'm just sitting watching my breath.
I come back to the breath.
My mind wanders.
How is this even important?
I could be like reading War and Peace or solving math problems or like learning AI.
Why is sitting with my breath so important?
It's because it connects you to yourself.
It connects you to your energy.
I've been teaching this practice for 12 years.
I've been doing this practice since I was 16 years old and once the breath takes you into the present and you're in the present,
It feeds every part of your life.
You wake up with energy every single morning because your breath is always in the present and when your attention is in the present you get that energy and it feeds into everything else.
The second part of the meditation is how you pay attention.
Pay attention with warmth.
Pay attention with tenderness.
Pay attention with affection.
Why is it that we not only observe the present moment but we observe the present moment with love?
The answer is still energy.
Everything you do with love gives you energy.
Anything you do without love takes your energy away.
So observe the breath with love and with pleasure as you meditate.
Enjoy the practice of watching the breath and even clean the house with love and pleasure and affection.
Cook the vegetables with a kind of love.
Clean the house with love.
Pet the cat with love and affection.
Talk to your partner with love.
Do the work that you're doing with love and pleasure and then you will always have energy.
