How to stop thinking about the future?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: Acharya Ji, conceptually I agree with everything you say. But my situation is that I have left a lot of my material stuff behind, and I seek that life that you speak about, but every step that I take I am always thinking about the next step.

I am here in India, I practice yoga and meditation, and I enjoy the beauty of the mountains, and I am trying to live this awesome spiritual life, without the material things. But now that I am here, I am also constantly thinking about what is next, what I am going to do when I return from India. It seems like a never-ending cycle.

How can I stop thinking about the future?

Acharya Prashant (AP): A man felt burdened with Kilograms and grams. The kilos were a few, the grams were numerous. To make it more concrete — the kilos were four, and the grams were forty. The fellow dropped forty of them, forty grams, but he missed out on dropping the four, the four Kilograms. And now he says, “I have dropped so much, and I still feel heavy.”

Why does he feel heavy when he has dropped so many of them? Because he dropped the ones that were easy to drop; the real weight he didn’t quite drop.

You dropped this and that, but have you dropped your belief that you know what is good for you?

That is the one central belief that does not allow man to live freely and fully — “I will be my own master. My intellect will decide the next step.”

If you keep thinking about what you need to do next, if coming to India or planning your sojourn through India, is all happening via the intellectual route, then what have you dropped? If you still haven’t dropped your misplaced belief, in your power to take care of yourself, then what have you dropped?

That’s what hurts man most — his notion that he knows best what will serve him. He lets his intellect be his master.

Take an example. You will come to know what we value more, and what is it that we will be very reluctant to drop.

If I say, “You are poor,” and if I say, “You are a moron,” what would hurt you more? If I say, “You are poor,” versus if I say, “You are…