Exhaustion from being present?

[Wyatt]

I just finished reading the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, and if you haven’t yet, it’s a must. He makes an incredible case for Being, Presence, and silencing thoughts unless they’re necessary. Very powerful meditation techniques.

This past week I’ve been practicing his teachings and trying to be extremely present for a couple hours everyday, focusing all of my senses and my mind into the present moment while sitting. I’ve also been trying to incorporate presence into my work, which I can see will add tons of value for me and my clients.

For the past 3 days, I’ve been EXTREMELY exhausted. I’m a personal trainer, take good care of my health, and am often described as someone with lots of energy. But, these few days have been awful. I don’t want to get out of bed, don’t want to work or hangout with friends, get frustrated at doing small tasks, and have very strong negative self talk.

Can practicing presence really be the cause of this? I thought Being and Presence were supposed to be rejuvinating and bring peace? Did I just overdo it, like an inexperienced athlete lifting weights for hours everyday?

Thanks!

[Nexeternity]

@Wyatt   Maybe thats ego backlash?  Maybe your presence is bringing stuff out of your subconscious to get purified.

Staying present can be hard at first.  You get tired of it and want to just go unconscious.  But after a while it flips and you feel bad when you arent present and stay on it all the time.

[krish]

@Wyatt no don’t give up until it becomes a habit..any habit is easy to start but after the initial few days the mind tricks you to go back to your old ways...if you feel low, say to yourself this will change soon and it will in a matter of time. I read the book and it was so wonderfully articulated and it did have a deep impact on me. 

Remember one thing “reading becomes useless without practice” 

i read power of now 3 years back but never put it to practice and I regret that ..I am now practicing for the last 2 months sincerely and it keeps me calm and focused.

[Natasha]

@Wyatt Because the ego hates Being. Leo has a good vid on Deficiency perception vs Being perception, look it up.

 

 

[aurum]

@Wyatt

1+ just because I'm an Eckhart Tolle fanboy

Doing presence work can definitely have strange energetic effects like making you tired or emotional. Your physical body isn't used to it, so it's like it has to adapt to using this new energy source as fuel. You've been putting in regular gas, now it's time for premium.

Nothing to do but push through the hump. Eventually it actually increase your energy levels.

 

[Arman]

Use the exhaustion as another trigger to go into presence

you will get 10x gains

[Markus]

@Wyatt Eckhart Tolle's technique is basically taking your attention away from thought or head-space and putting it into your sensory world: seeing, feeling, hearing, etc. It's a retraining of attention. It WILL take a lot of energy at first. But over time it becomes second nature. So stick it out.

By the way, you could read a book called "Zen Body-Being" by Peter Ralston. It's very good. Especially since you're doing sports! The principles there like relaxing, feeling the whole body, etc go very much hand in hand with being present. So that book is like a two-in-one: calming the mind & being present + enhancing athletic ability.

[Joseph Maynor]

You’re definitely suffering from ego-backlash.  What will be great is when you can watch all that happen and realize that you are creating all of it.  What you need to do is release the I-Thought — where nothing that is happening means anything about separate sense of self.  Clinging to the I-Thought is what causes deep suffering because you believe — I am suffering — which is false.  So, work on releasing that I-Thought.  Nothing happening means anything about you, it’s just occurrences in Nature.  When you become fully aware of these negative emotions and see them for what they are, the Mind will release them.

Edited January 8, 2018 by Joseph Maynor