Wdid, this was posted over the holiday by Techguy and I thought it might help.
Here is a few paragraphs from Pema Chodron on the topic: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One of the most powerful teachings of the Buddhist tradition is that as long as you are wishing for things to change, they never will. As long as you're wanting yourself to get better, you won't. As long as you have an orientation toward the future, you can never just relax into what you already have or already are.
One of the deepest habitual patterns that we have is to feel that now is not good enough. We think back to the past a lot, which maybe was better than now, or perhaps worse. We also think ahead quite a bit to the future - which we may fear - always holding out hope that it might be a little bit better than now. Even if now is going really well -there's a deep tendency always to think about how it's going to be later. We don't quite give ourselves full credit for who we are in the present.
Nowadays, people go to a lot of different places trying to find what they're looking for. There are 12 -step programs; someone told me that there is now a 24-step program; someday there will probably be a 108-step program. There are a lot of support groups and different therapies. Many people feel wounded and are looking for something to heal them. To me it seems that at the root of healing, at the root of feeling like a fully adult person, is the premise that you're not going to try to make anything go away, that what you have is worth appreciating. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Take comfort in the present. You are in a good place right now in your M and a source of hope to all of us on this board.
