The Power of Now Journal


Using The Power of Now Journal Prompts to Enter into Your Sacred Creative Space


Grace, ease, silence, stillness, and surrender are your collaborators.


By Chris Dunmire | Posted 3/8/20 | Updated 7/4/20


The Power of Now JournalIf you've found Eckhart Tolle's perspective-shifting book The Power of Now, with its timeless message that "living in the now is the truest path to happiness and enlightenment," a useful tool to moving through your days, then you are already primed to use the practice of mindfulness as an in-way to accessing your own sacred creative space.


Tolle's The Power of Now Journal is a companion book leading you into hands-on expressive action through art or writing, or as a catalyst to use with other practices.

Let's explore three profound ways the Journal can help you combine mindfulness practices with creative action:


1. Grace and Ease


“To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease,
and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent
upon things being in a certain way, good or bad.”

(Tolle, 2019, p. 28-29)


Grace and Ease


In The Power of Now, Tolle writes, "Inner resistance is to say 'no' to what is, through mental judgment and emotional negativity. … Acceptance of what is immediately frees you from mind identification and thus reconnects you with Being. Resistance is the mind" (1999).

Letting go of resistance is essential to being fully immersed in your creative process. Artists and writers are used to meeting with a blank canvas or page in an organized studio or tidy writing space, but if this space is not mirrored on the inside to be open to experience and free from judgment or emotional static, creative blocks and uninspired states of being can happen.


Letting go of resistance allows a clear path for your creativity to flow.


2. Silence and Stillness


“Even if there is noise, there is always some silence underneath
and in between the sounds. Listening to the silence
immediately creates stillness inside you.”

(Tolle, 2019, p. 40-41)


The Power of Now Journal


Tolle says, "Stillness is your essential nature. What is stillness? The inner space or awareness in which the words on this page are being perceived and become thoughts. Without that awareness, there would be no perception, no thoughts, no world. You are that awareness, disguised as a person" (2020).

Sitting in stillness is the complete inhabiting of the present moment. This moment, when used as a countdown to one, can launch and propel you forward into your work with complete focus. Think of the pause a world-class swimmer breathes in deeply before diving into the pool. In that single breath he syncs body and mind before plunging into his greatest act. Some call this entering the zone. Champion swimmer Michael Phelps says, "I feel most at home in the water. I disappear. That's where I belong."


Silence and stillness create the perfect conditions for your imagination to activate.


3. Surrender


“If you suddenly feel very light, clear, and deeply at peace, that is
an unmistakable sign that you have truly surrendered.”

(Tolle, 2019, p. 76-77)


The Power of Now Journal


Tolle observes, "Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life. The only place where you can experience the flow of life is the Now, so to surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservation. It is to relinquish inner resistance to what is" (Tolle, 1999).

Surrender as a form of internal readiness can involve any variety of mental, emotional, or spiritual preparations to help empty the mind or heart of distractions or remove internal clutter that divides attention.

To surrender is to accept the present moment as-is and let everything else melt away. For some, crafting a starting ritual helps them move into this space. Tolle says that simply yielding to the flow of what is can bring on the state of surrender. In this state of awareness, room is made for new things to enter and grow.


Surrendering and being deeply at peace, allows an opening to explore new experiences in your creating.



About Eckhart Tolle

The Power of Now JournalEckhart Tolle, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Power of Now, is a spiritual teacher and author who was born in Germany and educated at the Universities of London and Cambridge. When he was 29 years old, a profound inner transformation radically changed the course of his life. The next few years were devoted to understanding, integrating, and deepening that transformation, which marked the beginning of an intense inward journey. Later, he began to work in London with individuals and small groups as a counselor and spiritual teacher. Eckhart shares his time between British Columbia, Canada, and California. Find out more about his work at www.eckharttolle.com.

References

Images used are from The Power of Now Journal. Copyright ©2019 by Eckhart Tolle. Printed with permission from New World Library — www.newworldlibrary.com.

Tolle, E. (2019). The Power of Now Journal. Namaste Publishing and New World Library. Novato, CA.

Tolle, E. (n.d.). Stillness Speaks. Retrieved March 8, 2020 from http://soulfulliving.com/stillness_speaks.htm

Tolle, E. (1999). The Meaning of Surrender. The Power of Now. Retrieved March 8, 2020 from https://www.newworldlibrary.com/Blog/tabid/767/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/597/The-Meaning-of-Surrender-An-excerpt-from-THE-POWER-OF-NOW-by-Eckhart-Tolle.aspx