The Power of Now teaches that our mental activity, or incessant preoccupation with the past and the future keeps us from experiencing the joy of being. In the now moment is the gift of bliss. The now is our biggest treasure but we miss it due to repetitive thought patterns that govern our experience of the world around us.
The ego causes unconscious identification with outer experiences, such as our possessions or a lack thereof, social status, and other outward norms that give us permission to be happy, thus trapping us in endless misery. When we have “that” thing, or we achieve “that” goal, we can be happy, but this is the ego’s way to keep us future-focused instead of gloriously in the now where dissatisfaction and misery cannot reside.
As long as we don’t separate the thoughts from the thinker, we are relegated to a self-created hell. Conversely, when we surrender fully to what is, here and now, there is no more pain. Incessant thinking can be addictive, but we can learn how to slow thoughts and direct them.