An alternate take on Lester Levenson’s Step 1: Substituting "Freedom" with "Presence"

Lester Levenson’s original Step 1 in the Six Steps to Freedom is generally stated as: "You must want freedom more than you want approval, control, and security."

After exploring mindfulness, non-dual pointers, and Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, I realized that "freedom" can sometimes feel like a distant, abstract goal. To make it more immediate, I rephrased the first step:

"Could you want to be here now more than you want control, approval, or security?"

Here is why this alternate interpretation is practically effective:

• It shifts the focus from a future state to an immediate action. You can choose to be "here now" in this exact second, whereas the ego often frames "freedom" as something to achieve later.
• The underlying wants are time-bound. The desire for control, approval, and security inherently relies on a past or a future. Eckhart Tolle points out that the ego requires psychological time to survive.
• Presence is the mechanism of release. If you fully consent to being here now, you automatically drop the resistance that fuels the need to manipulate an outcome (control), seek external validation (approval), or guarantee survival (security).

Combining the mechanics of the Sedona Method with pure present-moment awareness simplifies the letting-go process.

Has anyone else experimented with combining Levenson’s teachings with non-dual or present-moment pointers? I'd be interested to hear if this framing helps anyone else drop those underlying wants.