The Power of Now: Breaking Free from Mental Loops

Think about our lives and consider what happens in moments of negativity, despair, and especially when we’re dealing with anxiety, depression, or OCD. Where is our mind during those moments? Is it in the present, or in the past and future? Our heads are spinning with thoughts of what already happened and what might happen. But where is life actually happening? Right now, in the present!

But we’re missing it.

We’re missing the opportunity to succeed because we’re stuck in yesterday’s failure, and we’ve already convinced ourselves that tomorrow won’t be any better. Meanwhile, the present- the only place where action is possible- is slipping through our fingers.

Not long ago, I had a conversation with someone that went something like this:

Me: “Move forward! You can do it!”

Him: “But I’m a failure.”

Me: “I hear you. That voice is loud in your head, but still, move forward!”

Him: “But the people around me won’t let me!”

Me: “Maybe you’re right, but still, move forward!”

This went on for a few minutes. At first glance, it seems like a strange conversation. He’s making logical points, and I’m “ignoring” them and just repeating the same advice- act in the present. Don’t I understand him?

That’s the whole point.

You don’t need to win the argument with your thoughts. You don’t need to silence your mind or fix your feelings before you act. You can do, even when your mind screams that you can’t. Then you discover something powerful: that you actually can move forward in life.

The brain can shout “You can’t!”- but you can still take a step, even as it’s shouting. The common belief is: If I feel like I can’t, then I really can’t. But that’s a lie the brain tells us- and lived experience can expose it.

The message I was trying to convey was this: your brain will flood you with stories about what was and what will be, but in the meantime, instead of getting lost in mental chaos, you can simply do.

We all fall into this trap sometimes. It's one of the key factors that fuels anxiety, depression, and OCD. The mind catches us in its stories, and we forget the now. But if we learn to adopt a more flexible mindset and to focus on the present despite the noise between our ears, these struggles will begin to lose their grip.