Do you agonize about how your endeavors will turn out?

Are events and decisions from your past interrupting your present?

When you are falling asleep at night, do the trouble-gremlins dance on your chest, preventing you from breathing?

How is your patience?

Is your family ready for a covid winter?

What about your capacity for forgiveness, or compassion for the rude person you encountered at work/at the shop/on the phone/in line at the post office?

Let’s pause the worry train here for a moment.

Conjure in your mind’s eye two earth rotations from now. The dreams you are setting your sights on have come true, wilder than your wildest imaginings. Imagine that future-you notices present-you. Your wildest dreams are smiling beneficently, gesturing to present-you to join them in spacetime.

In his Insight Timer course, The Art of TimefulnessThe Art of Timefulness, Tom Evans introduces us to Future Entanglement: a practice of sitting meditation in which the practitioner uses time as the focus, in the same way the breath or body sensations are used as the focal point in other mindfulness practices. In this technique the meditative center is wound around the notion that future-you has already taken the necessary steps to change thinking and behavior to spin y’alls future outcome into the fabric of your wildest dreams.

Entanglement isn’t only an exercise, it is a theory, too. One that sees time not just as a linear progression marching in one direction to infinity, but also as a timeless presence without any before or after. Tangibly, future entanglement is a method to connect our present moment awareness with the consciousness of our future-self. It is something that can help us get out of our own hesitation and delusion. Working with fear and hope (two sides of the same coin), entanglement works like mental gravity: one pictures where they would like to head and then uses visualization to pull oneself to that destination because it is already real.

I use future entanglement for all sorts of goals and desires. Entanglement gives my anxious mind something to do with itself. When worry about the outcome of my endeavors blocks me from working towards them, it is simultaneously soothing and inspiring to visit future-me. The future is certain to her, and present-me can rest in future-me’s company while we vision wildly and manifest those wild dreams both in and out of time.Some practitioners use entanglement as a form of goal setting; by connecting with their future selves, they find the clarity about what their present-self is working to manifest. Dwelling in the possible, as opposed to the problems, is one of the best ways to clarify one’s destination and stay connected to why we do what we do.

In conversation we often say, “I need to pause” or, “Let me take a minute to catch my breath” both of which are deep wisdoms bubbling up through our colloquial language. When we pause our very busy doing sometimes messages you have for yourself can bubble up. Sometimes, that’s the only way those messages can bubble up.

Experimenting with time in this way helps us break our illusion that time is only linear. It can free us from the spinning worry ball of doom. Future entanglement, like walking meditation or eating mindfully, provides a focus upon which one rests the whirligig of the mind so that presence, awareness, consciousness, the higher self, or the soul can take the reins. This gift of self-care you can give all versions of yourself so that your authentic presence is clearly available for the vivid events happening all around you.

erin feldman works as the Co-founder of Center Content mindful marketing and creative content agency centering people, purpose, and productivity. Working through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion, erin encourages clients to expand the reach of their brand stories to wider audiences through compelling and mindfully crafted content.

erin is a published writer and poet with 20 years of experience as a writing instructor, professional development facilitator, classroom educator, yoga teacher, and outdoor leader. An expert facilitator and speaker, erin supports clients in developing their vision, voice, and the self-confidence necessary for both personal growth and professional success – which she believes go hand in hand.