In this post I share my personal experience about what happens when you dwell in the present moment every day.

I’m only partially disidentified from my thoughts. There are still many times a day where I catch myself in the midst of thinking.

But there are also periods of no thought, and I am also often able to observe the thinking process without getting involved in it.

There are days where I’m able to stay present most of the times, and there are other days when thoughts relentlessly attack and try to draw me back into identifying with them.

Seeing the world in a new way

Although the periods of no thought seem to be non-eventful, I find that only later the benefits of the practice show up.

For example, you are able to find yourself widely awake to the magic of this world; there are periods where everything seems new, alive and other-worldly. Everything seems peaceful and benevolent and you know that absolutely everything comes from God.

When you don’t label living beings of any sort but just look at them without any judgment, you realize that they are incredible creations of God. You know that you really do not understand the mystery of any of them, yet when we label things we assume we know what everything is.

For example, we say “This is an owl”, and we assume that this label is all the being is. When that label is not applied, we start seeing the magic and mystery of this creation of God.

And this applies not only to animate but inanimate creations too, though in actuality all is living so even this latter label makes us see things in an incorrect way. That’s the danger and damage of labeling anything.

Do not expect anything to happen when you are present

I sometimes hear people getting fed up with the practice of being present because nothing seems to happen during it. It’s not always true that absolutely nothing happens, as you sometimes may feel energetic movements within the body and you may even experience spiritual phenomena;

But even if the practice of mindfulness is completely uneventful, the effects will be felt later on for sure. Just keep staying present on a daily basis.

The effects of mindfulness

This non-eventful mindfulness bears fruit quite soon. It not only allows you to see things in a fresh way, but it also helps you clear old conditioning and get rid of negative habits.

The more you dwell in the present moment, the more you get disidentified from thought structures and energy imprints in the body responsible for addictions and destructive behavior. But do not expect this change to be instant; the more you dwell in the present moment, the more your presence clears these deep-seated destructive patterns.

Mindfulness heals your mind and makes it able to function better. Your memory and logic may become much better, and you are able to come up with inventive solutions to your problems.

That’s because those solutions come directly from the Source which you access by staying in the present moment, rather than them coming as a combination of thoughts already present in your mind.

Staying present not only makes you disidentify from your thought processes, but you stop identifying yourself with anything in this world. You start seeing the world as a play, or some describe this disidentification as as though finding themselves in a dream.

This, of course, naturally makes you less emotional, because you know that nothing that’s happening is real but only projections from the source. That’s not to say that you become totally devoid of emotion; but your emotions definitely become milder.

The sense of peace that pervades your life

Also, you lose neurotic highs and lows, and you are most of the time in the state of peace. Complete awareness sometimes allows presence to so strongly come through that this inner joy colors the external reality too, making it look living, benign and magical.

These moments of inner joy projected to the external reality can be read about in the writings of Jiddu Krishnamurti. But the state of peace is what I observe as a normal state in those who are awakened, and that’s the state I’m in most of the times as well.

I find some unawakened people describing such a state as a sort of vegetable-like existence, but this is very far from the truth. The absence of neurotic ups and downs that the world calls happiness and unhappiness preserves your body from energetic imbalances which drain it.

You only need to experience these ups and downs when the deeper dimension within you is undiscovered yet, and thus you search for the completion of you in external things and worldly excitements. This makes you feel alive, but this state doesn’t last; then again there’s the sense of lack, and there’s again the search of what the emptiness within can be filled with.

Once you get in touch with that deeper dimension, you no longer need to experience violent mood swings because you no longer need to search for things that energetically make you feel alive, like sex, food stimulants and so on. You are at peace with who you are because you know yourself to be complete, and you like that harmonious vibration to remain undisturbed.

Being in conscious touch with the Source

There is another interesting development that happens when you dwell in the present moment. That’s about always staying connected with the Source consciously. All of us are connected with the Source otherwise we would not exist, but most humans do not know of this connection.

When you are conscious of that connection, however, you get “notifications” from the Source.

For example, the Source may nudge you to pay attention to some particular being or situation. It may encourage you to research something. At that time you have no idea why, but you do it, and later on you find out how this nicely ties into your purpose in life or some important thing that you need to accomplish.

Sometimes the Source may even notify you about someone you know or heard of who has become awakened or someone you need to pay attention to because that person will play a major role in your life.

How the connection with the Source works – personal examples

I will give you two examples from my own life that illustrate how this connection with the Source can manifest. The first is about a reader of mine who attended one of my early workshops, when I was still into New Age.

I knew I had to pay attention to her; my awareness naturally zoomed in her and that’s the only person that I remember from that early workshop.

She was the one who stuck with me during the renunciation of the New Age, my Christian days and coming out of that ideology as well. So the reason the Source zoomed in on her is for me to get the message that this will be the person that will keep believing in me no matter through what change I would be going.

Here’s the second example. I always felt like Russel Brand stood out, though I did not like what he was doing as a celebrity, nor did I agree with his opinions. I just knew I had to pay attention to him.

And recently, after years of totally forgetting about him, I got an urge to check what he’s up to. I ignored the impulse that time, but then the same day I was listening to the recording of Eckhart Tolle, and he was actually talking about Russel Brand! This could not have been a coincidence. I knew I had to check what he’s up to.

And lo and behold, I checked his YouTube channel, and he’s awakened now! It’s impossible for this to be a coincidence, like it would be impossible for my first example to be a coincidence. The chances are just too low for things to line up this way.

That’s the power of the Source. Usually It just gives peace and assurance, but if a person will play some role in your life, or you need to do something in order to fulfill your life’s purpose in the future, you will for sure feel the impulse to do the appropriate thing, if you’re plugged into the Source consciously.

So when you try to stay present as much as possible, you don’t lose conscious touch with the Source, and It can notify you about what you need to pay attention to, warn you of dangers, and tell exactly what action to take in any situation. That’s the reason very aware people do not plan their speeches; they know that if they stay connected to the Source, perfect words will come out of their mouths.

Feeling the power of the Source

I’m also experiencing the sense of power when I’m present. At first this didn’t happen but after regular mindfulness practice periods I started not only seeing the world in a fresh way, but I began tapping into the power of the Source.

Once you tap into that power, you know that who you are is invulnerable. I don’t mean the body but who you are at your core. You are part of the Source and the Source is immortal and nothing can hurt It, so you get absolute sense of assurance.

No wonder Jesus called himself the son of God. That’s how you feel when you stay present. You know that you are inseparable from that Oneness which created the world.

Planning is replaced with spontaneity

Also, when you live the life of mindfulness, you no longer need to plan so much, because you say the right thing and you do the right thing at the right time. That’s not to say there is no need for any planning whatsoever; but in most cases planning becomes pointless.

Another development that happens is that you begin to feel if a person is talking spontaneously or from memory. Some public speakers speak freely and fast, yet you know it’s coming from the memory rather than the present moment.

Spontaneous speech and action are fresh and have power in them; memorized speech and unconscious action are devoid of power and influence.

Connecting with people on another dimension

When you are able to stay present on a daily basis, you also feel if other people have reached that dimension or they only live in their minds. You are able to connect with people on that dimension of stillness.

This I have experienced myself, with an awakened Buddhist monk. I’m a recluse at least for the time being, so I have not had the opportunity to connect with many people in such a way; but I also experienced the connection through stillness with my boyfriend; we saw each other as one.

I have also heard Eckhart Tolle say that when you are established in presence, you are able to see past the ugly masks people wear and you can look right into their core and speak to that.

I am unable to do so yet; I still find it difficult to get beyond the ugly conditioning of some humans. But I really hope to achieve it, as then you can remain unshaken no matter what front people present to you.

Finally…

In this post I described my personal experiences and developments as a result of striving to be present. To end this post, I would also like to remind how important it is not to divorce spirituality from every day life but to make the whole life a spiritual experience.

Thus, it’s better to practice mindfulness every spare minute that you have, rather than setting aside a chunk of time for meditation. That is good too, but it’s much more useful to integrate spirituality into your every day existence as then your growth is very natural and more rapid, in my experience.

Hi, I'm Simona Rich, the author of this site.

I'm from Lithuania, though most of the time you'll find me somewhere in Asia.

I write about spirituality and self-improvement, and consult on those topics.

Let's connect on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. My bio is here...