We exist in the now.
It is very easy to let memory dictate how we feel at any time.
If you live in the now, memory becomes the teacher.
If you live in the now, tommorow becomes a possible path.

So many live in yesterday or tomorrow yet fail to live in today or right now.
Try giving right now a chance.
Its much easier to live in 'now' than to try to live in yesterday or tomorrow.

To do this requires you to let go of the memories and embrace right now.
You have to stop expecting tomorrow and recognize now as the actual state of being.

While difficult, it certainly is not impossible.
After-all you live in the 'now' whether you like it or not.

When is now?
Is this like a meditation thing?
Are we present for now ? As in, if I'm sitting in a coffee shop, but my mind wanders elsewhere, to some other now, that is also now, which now, is more now
The 1 with the bill
Or the heavenly 1 I may have wandered to, wondering what it might feel like, should the waitress kiss me
And if the 2 nows coexist and come to fruition, and I am present, yet have wandered in delights
Is that another now

It is a smiths song, ain't it
How soon is now?

I've forgotten the question.

Now is always now.
How could be anything else?

Perhaps a definition of insanity is the inability to understand NOW from the past or future?
In a sense, might those living in the past or the future a specific type of insanity?
At what point is reality, sanity?

If one exists in a perpetual future or a never-ending past any more or less sane than one existing in the "now"?

How important is reality?

Is realit what we say it is or does it mean something more?
Who determines your reality?

Just so you know; I really do have an urge to dip my toes in your pie.
Not your pie individually but pie all the same.
I also have an irresistible urge to swim naked in a pool of jello but that is besides the point.
The point is, Your pie is just as good as any pie.

If you live in the now, you are creating new brain paths. So how can memory be the Teacher, Tom?

Knowing people with mental health issues, their 'insanity', is the result of many things.
Please stop now Tom, you are entering very fragile territory.

We exist in a reality of memory.
Everything we are is a memory of what we have experienced.
It is that reality of memory that allows us to exist in the now.
The familiar things we identify with are based on our memories of experiences we have endured.
Its when we encounter something new that we expand our consciousness.
Without that expansion, we are destined to repeating the past.
For all we are, we become more by existing in the now.

I think it depends on the person. I have to hush my brain all the time. I have a huge issue with the trauma of my past. The past is not always a precursor to the future. You can change, you can think different. You just have to believe and have faith.

I believe insanity is a social thing.
It is defined by social parameters.
Thus, in my mind, insanity is relative to the social parameters that define it.

Put that in plain English please?

I think it all depends on how much baggage you carry.
In the moment, there is no room for the past or the futer.
We create the issuses of the past.

Its a matter of just letting go of the past which hurts.
It sounds simple enough but many make it complicated.
The reality is, let go and live in the moment of Now.
Appreciate what the now reveals.
No matter how hard I try, I can't undo the past.
So why try?
Why not just live in the moment and go from there?

In plain, simple language it means I can't actually know who is sane or insane except for the label of society.
I am however, part of society, so the defining traits are identified.
According to society's standards.

It is not my place to assign sanity or insanity.
If it were, there would be many labeled as insane according to their words and actions.

I experienced psychotic assumption in the 80s.
I still wonder if the things I saw and heard after a week of no sleep are real or imagined?
I still sense those peculiarities from time to time.
The difference is I am no longer sleep deprived.

Others sense a reality most can't fathom.
I wonder why that makes them insane?
Perhaps they see something others can't?
Its a matter of perspective.

How I now see things, many people in society 'deems' them insane but may not be insane, merely aware.
There are 'tells' which help to isolate the personality issues but there are also 'tells' that hint at a different view on things.
Frankly, I like to keep my options open.

I also know there are chemical imbalances the effect reality.
It is extremely difficult to differentiate the different conditions deemed as insane.
I default to the assumption all are sane but recognize a different reality.

To a certain degree I agree with living in the now but to ignore the past is impossible.Our past is what makes us what we are today.To ignore what we are today is to deny the now.Most of us have a future or at least we are counting on waking up tomorrow.If I haven't got milk in my fridge for my cup of tea in the morning I am not going to be very happy living in that particular "now".So to enjoy living in that "now" it is prudent to make provision today for tomorrow morning.

I'm not really saying to ignore anything.
We gain wisdom from the past but we don't need to carry it around with us to be in the now.
The future is a prediction, nothing more.
As intelligent people, able to understand cause and effect, the future can be as we expect. It does take preparation and specific actions performed in the now.

The reason for this thread is for when the future does not go as expected.
Living in the now allows us to make sure the things in our control can happen. Usually by some type of action performed in the now.
If you go for milk and then some unforeseen thing happens preventing you from getting the milk. If you live in the now, you have the ability to cope with that unexpected event. Make changes to assure your expected future.

Living in the now allows you to use the wisdom of the past to assure a future. Its called wisdom.
However, when one focuses and lives in the past, the future is more uncertain. Mainly because there is no focus on what you have to do in the now to assure the future you expect.

"The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle... Excellent book, it's about freeing ourselves from the 'entrapment of the mind'. Much like what you're talking about Tom. Focusing on past or future is a form of that entrapment that keeps us from walking in a awakened state of conscious awareness in the 'now' of today.

Being still, in the moment, releasing ourselves from past and future is often practiced through meditation in discovering the true essence of our soul and connect with the present moment of our existence and surroundings. It's quite challenging to practice that same stillness in the midst of the day, yet not impossible. In the midst of chaos, our minds have the tendency to interpret what's going on based on past experience. We 'react' to the past experience, rather than what's really going on today. Being able to let go of that past experience by entering in the now allows us to walk through that chaos in a new awakened state of consciousness and more peaceful state of being. It's how we evolve to a higher vibration of being.

Great topic Tom, I'm loving it and it's reminding me to get back to 'now'.

I don't think we exist in a reality of memory, we live more from the subconscious than the conscious mind.
When your trying to stay in the now you are attempting to not be in the subconscious but conscious part of the brain. This, however, is only a small part of the brain, and the conscious part/mind is much much much slower than the subconscious which in comparison is a super processor.
If memory serves, we are in the subconscious 96% of the time! I'm not sure if this is the same as memory or what Tom means?
The subconscious does hold memories, but also how we perceived things to have gone, which is not always the truth of what went down but more based on our feelings of something. Usually pain, inner child trauma.

Being in the 'now' is powerful, yes. But also extremely exhausting. That's because the processor is so slow AND because you're ignoring what's in the subconscious, the shadow, the inner child trauma etc.
It is better in that sense to heal that.

Dr. Bruce Lipton -author of The Biology of Belief- has stuff on this on YouTube. Extremely interesting!

Perhaps I am misinterpreting "living in the now".We talk of people living in the past or living for the future.I don't believe we have any option but to carry the past around with us.After all we are the product of our past experiences and our future is determined by how we use that experience to deal with the present circumstances.For example someone who works themselves to the bone saving for the holiday of a lifetime which might never eventuate or live up to their expectations sacrifices the enjoyment of living a normal life for a future pleasure.A simpler and different concept than what Crystal and River are talking about,which sounds like hard work to me.

So perhaps put another way
If I'm tripping balls
And I see rainbows and dancing skeletons ( I might even be with somebody who sees them too ) , am I in the now
Am I present, if I miss what's right in front of my eyes, but in my mind , I've wandered, to things, that my 2 eyes cannot see, but which perhaps a different kind of eye can
Would that make me by definition, insane?
Or is it insane not to see these things
Is sanity inexplicably linked to now? Perhaps