By Dina Aldabbagh

Hi Present Moment! Nice to meet you! It’s so funny, I heard some crazy things about you. My past self said some really scary stuff about you…she said you were full of sadness, unsafety, disappointment, strenuous effort, resistance…you had a pretty bad reputation. But now I’m meeting you in person, and I realize…you’re not as bad as they said. You see, it wasn’t just my past self that told me such things about you, it was kind of everybody. Everybody always says there’s need to be worried when meeting you — like you’ll be very dangerous. But now, I’m standing in you, and I look around, and I just can’t understand why everyone was so scared. Why were they so worried? You’re quite lovely. Yeah, I heard some crazy things about you — none of them were true. It makes me feel bad for my past self. She spent so much time worrying about this meeting, but you’re just…normal. 

Do you know — this present moment was the future to your past self. This is the future you were so anxious about. And now, that future moment that currently burdens you — that’s also just a present moment, one that you’ll meet sometime after this one. It’s always the present. It’s always today. Today will never be tomorrow, and you will never be in tomorrow — you’ll always just be in today. You are only ever experiencing the present moment, you just contextualize it in time, but your current experience is never of tomorrow, it’s always of today. 

We are taught worrisome things about the future — “All the jobs are being taken, there won’t be any jobs in a few years,” “No one will be able to own a house,” “No one can maintain a fit body later into life.” It’s so funny that they always scared us in school with worries of the future. In middle school, they told us, “Just wait until you get to high school, it’s much harder than this,” — but then we got to high school and we were fine. In high school, they told us, “Just wait until you get to college, it’s much harder than this,” — but then we got to college and we were fine. Why? Logically, yes, the higher the level of education, the “harder” it is, but the difference is you grow in proportion to it. By the time you get to college — yes, it’s new, yes, there’s adjustment — but your capacity is already exactly what it needs to be to meet that moment. You are exactly who you need to be in order to be a freshman in college. They’re not putting 6th graders in college because at that point they’re not ready. But after 12th grade? You are. 

We are sold a narrative that the future is always harder and less safe than this present moment. But that’s not true. The only truth is that it’s unknown. And because it’s unknown, the narrative that we should worry about the future now to prepare ourselves for it when it arrives is easily sold to the mass-market. Let me maybe be the only voice to tell you today that you don’t have to worry about the future, and let me do you one better and make sense of why. 

Rule #1: We always do what we think is in our best interest. So if you’re worrying about the future right now, you do think it’s in your best interest. On some level, your worry about the future is probably out of a place of loyalty to protect your future self. Because if you can prepare your system for the worst right now, then it won’t land as hard when — really, if — it does land, right? That’s the lie though. You don’t actually solve or soften any future pain for yourself if you prepare your body to feel those bad feelings now, all you do is extend the suffering. 

So, think of that worry of yours — that thing you’re afraid will happen — if you look around you, it’s not happening right now. It’s only happening in your mind’s eye, and that focus on it is making it seem very real. But when you actually take a moment to look around you, it’s not actually present. You’re seeing a tiger that you’re up against, but that tiger is only in your head — it’s not actually in front of you. Face the present moment, not the imagination of the tiger. Because at this moment, that fear of the future is the only thing that’s real to you — not actually what the fear is of. Hear me: the fear is what you’re experiencing right now, not the actual thing you’re afraid of happening.

As of right now, you don’t know how it’s going to shake out and you cannot solve a problem before it even comes up. That’s what you’re trying to do when you worry about something that hasn’t happened yet: you’re trying to solve something that doesn’t even exist yet. You can’t do anything about something that hasn’t happened yet. You just have to know that you are safe in this moment right now, and when the “this moment right now” of your future comes up, you will use all the skill set and ability you have to be safe in that moment. 

“Am I at risk right now?” No? Okay, well that’s because everything you’ve done leading up to this point has led due to a place of safety. You can do that again and again and however many times you need to. Trying to do something about a future problem that might come up? That’s just such a non issue right now. That doesn’t mean that times of issue will not come, but that you have everything you need in order to make sure you are safe and that you feel safe once again. Because you won’t be a 6th grader going into college, you’ll be a high school graduate — you will be ready to meet the moment. 

So in this moment, when that thing you’re afraid of isn’t actually present, you can rest. Because in this moment, there’s nothing to worry about. If the moment comes that you need to change your focus, and in that moment you feel all the emotions you’re afraid of feeling — then you will deal with that when that moment comes. You don’t need to pre-experience it. You don’t need to because this moment isn’t calling you to feel those things. 

You only need to experience this moment. Check in — this moment likely isn’t asking you to experience disappointment, grief, pain, scarcity, or whatever emotion or thing you’re afraid you’ll experience in the future. The only thing you have to experience right now is what’s present right now.  

In this moment, you are okay, you are safe. Everything is okay. And if that moment comes where your fear actually does manifest, you will be equipped to handle it in that moment — you don’t need to handle it sooner. If God wanted you to handle it right now, you would be in that moment right now. But right now you don’t have to. Right now, you’re in a moment of rest. You’re in this present moment — where everything is okay. 

There are these moments where we are so afraid of the future — that, “When I get to ‘this’ point, I won’t be taken care of.” But then that present moment arrives — the one you were worried about — and suddenly, it doesn’t feel so scary. Suddenly, things kind of just worked out. Maybe you’re afraid that in the future, you won’t have the resources, you won’t be taken care of, you’ll experience lack — but…in this moment, are you taken care of? Yes? Okay, then you have the current experience of being taken care of. If the moment comes in the future where you’re not, then you’ll be able to handle it then. You can’t actually do anything about that future moment right now. You can’t solve a problem that hasn’t happened yet. 

You just have to know that once you get there, there will be solutions — and it’s not a right now problem. You don’t need an answer right now to the future. You will meet the future when it gets here to the present. But for right now, you’re good. Take an honest account of your life. Do you have food to eat when you need it? Do you always have clothes to wear? Do you have the relational support you need for the moment? Do you have enough money to live at this time? Can you go do some fun things when you wish? Do you have a safe place to sleep? Even if the answer to any of these is no, look at you…living through the moment. You’re surviving. You’re meeting the moment and you haven’t been destroyed.  

There is actually so much that is okay with this present moment. You are living in a golden castle — you are taken care of. Don’t cry from your golden castle that one day… sometime…soon…in the future…you won’t be taken care of. Are you taken care of right now? Yes? Then when the present moment of the future comes, you will be okay then too. Don’t let the circumstances tell you to worry. They don’t have that kind of power to take away your safety for good. You know very well how to give yourself safety, so if a moment comes in the now that threatens your safety, you can handle it then. You don’t need to stay vigilant for it. God will take care of it, and what he doesn’t take care of, he doesn’t need to. You will take care of it.

Maybe you’re waiting for something — an acceptance, a call back, an approval — and you’re worried. “What if it doesn’t happen?” And so you think you’re doing yourself a favor by worrying about it right now because if it doesn’t happen in the future, you won’t be blindsided. But you don’t need to practice what it’ll be like to be hurt. You don’t need to pre-live the unsafety. In this moment, you’re safe. This moment is all good. You’re already okay — and that thing is on its way. You don’t need to stay vigilant to see if the thing has come yet because you’re afraid you’ll miss the moment of realization that “it’s not coming in” and that will somehow make you more unsafe. 

The only thing making you unsafe in this moment is your scanning for unsafety. You’re looking at it — giving it form, making it real to your reality. But that’s not the truth. You are actually safe — you don’t need to pre-experience the bad feelings. If the moment comes where you are face to face with the thing that will bring those emotions up in you, then you will feel the feelings in that moment. Right now though, that’s not been proven true — that thing isn’t in front of you. 

The point is…you don’t need to feel anything before its time. When the time comes to feel something, you will feel it. You don’t need to preempt anxiety. You don’t need to preempt lack. You don’t need to preempt self-doubt. You will be fine no matter what — because you’re fine at this moment. God always gives you what you need. If the moment comes that you need more, so it will be that you will have more. Because look in front of you: you have everything you need right now to survive this moment. If you needed something else, you’d have it.

This moment doesn’t call you to feel worried, because you’re not in danger. This moment is showing you that you are so safe. Don’t experience anything that this moment isn’t asking of you. You don’t owe your future self preparation for sadness. You’re not actually helping them by doing that, even though you may think so. What you honestly owe your future self is to enjoy the happiness in front of you as much as possible while you have the opportunity to. And when the moment changes, you will meet it. You cannot solve any problem at this moment that hasn’t already come up. 

I understand that you may think that resting in your present feels slightly irresponsible and unloving to your future self — like you are setting them up to be blindsided — but that’s not true. The truth of your reality is likely that you are always good. In every moment, you’re fine. You are safe.

If you are good in this moment, and you will be good in the future moments — because things will just work out. And even if they don’t, you have you and God to take care of you. So you can let go of the thought that you now need to experience the unsafety that you’re afraid you’ll one day experience….that isn’t even real right now. 

You know, runners train for a marathon for months. Typically the longest run they’ll do in training to prepare is 20 miles, but in the week before the race, they do their lowest mileage of their entire training. Why? Because they’ve already done the work to condition their body and the best thing they can do to prepare for the moment of reckoning is to rest. On the outside, rest may look irresponsible, but it’s actually strategic. Rest gives your body time to recuperate. 

So if it were actually 100% certain that the thing you’re afraid of will happen, and to prepare for that you’re putting yourself through it over and over again, you’re actually doing yourself a disservice. When the actual moment comes, you would have depleted all of your energy and you would have fatigued your body. The best thing you can actually do the moment before you have to fight, is rest. 

The ironic part is that the actual “fight” typically never does come. The battle you’re preparing your body to handle almost never happens — the worry rarely ever manifests. So then you’re not even conditioning your body for a purpose, you’re just putting your body through pain for no reason. That’s what it is to worry. You preemptively put yourself through a battle that never happens. But you made your body experience exactly what you thought it would in the case that the battle did happen. To worry is to condition your body for a problem that hasn’t even happened yet, and likely will never. Worrying doesn’t mean strategizing for how to deal with the problem when it comes, it just gives your body practice for how bad you’ll feel. 

What I’m recommending to you is to meet the moment you’re in, because that’s all you’re currently tasked with. If it was supposed to be different, it would be. If you needed to be anything different for this moment, then the present would be asking that of you. But what’s in front of you isn’t asking you to stress, to worry, to pre-experience pain. If you had $0 in the bank, then it would be normal to be worried. But you have $10,000 and you’re putting your body through the experience of having $0. 

“Well, I need to make sure I don’t get to $0 in the bank,” — does worrying about it help make sure you don’t? Or does actual action ensure that? Worrying as you drive to work doesn’t make sure you won’t hit $0, earning a paycheck does. Balancing your budget, having a job, making smart investments — these are the strategies that will actually ensure you don’t go bankrupt. Worrying does none of these things; it’s just an emotional experience that you’re putting yourself through to “keep yourself in line,” so that you don’t get too “fast and loose” and feel too safe in your current standing. So that you don’t rest too much.

But look around, love — you’re already safe. You’re already good. Rest is productive. Worry is depleting. The actual things that are required of you to make sure you stay good don’t require worry as an ingredient. Worry is not a prerequisite to safety — it’s just a state of being you choose to be in while you do all the same things you could do in a different state of being. 

Meeting this moment means giving of yourself what this moment asks of you. The second you need to give more, the moment will ask that of you. Until then, live in peace. By pre-experiencing the pain of a problem that hasn’t yet happened, you’re charging yourself more than what the actual moment costs.