How easily those memories of the past seize us in the present moment! Or the anticipation of the future yanks us away from what’s going on here and now. Thich Nhat Hanh calls these “ghosts,” because they only exist in our mind. We conjure them—or they automatically return—through our conditioning. This keeps us stuck, feeding more thoughts into them so they get strengthened. If we can take a sliver of a moment to ground ourselves in the here and now, we can begin the long process of rewiring our brains.
