Dec 2, 2022
This week’s podcast is from my interview with Rachel Krantz and
her wonderful podcast, “Help Existing.”
This week I'm talking with meditation teacher Jonathan Foust about
the tendency of the mind to live in the future. Whether it's
fantasizing or mundane planning, I know I often find my mind off in
the future. Its underlying cause is an overdeveloped impulse to
find pleasure and avoid danger and discomfort. Future thinking is
impossible (and ill-advised) to avoid entirely --but I would like
to learn to reign it in so that I can be more present in my
life.
At the same time, as we talk about in this episode, future thinking
has a purpose: it can alert us to what we're anxious about, where
we might be headed in life, and what we value. What I got out of
this conversation is that it's about learning how to work with it
skillfully. This episode provides many practical tips for exercises
that might help you do that.
You may remember Jonathan from last season's episode "Help Figuring
Out the Most Important Thing." I often turn to Jonathan for
some of life's biggest questions. He's so wise, and I've found his
podcast and YouTube channel extremely helpful.