Present moment

There are more and more people talking about the importance of the present moment, but what does it really mean and why is it so significant?

Most of us live our lives on autopilot, not putting too much attention on what we think, feel and do - just performing the same tasks every day, repeating the same thoughts and feelings as the day before. We wake up and we instantly start thinking about what we need to do, about problems, about what happened in the past or what might happen in the future. We pick our phones up, read the news, check e-mails, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and so on. That brings us to the familiar, to the known, to who we think we are and what our lives are like. We get up, brush our teeth, have a shower and in a shower we think about the coffee that we are going to drink when we are in the kitchen. When we are in a car, we think about work, meetings, phone calls, people we need to meet or bills we have to pay. While at work, we often wish the work day would be over so that we could meet our loved ones, our friends or just do anything else other than work. Even when we meet people after work, instead of truly listening to what they are saying and just being with them, we often concentrate on what we are going to say next, think about what we will need to do when we come home or what responsibilities are waiting for us the next day. We come home and we try to find something that will help us feel emotions that we are familiar with, anything in order not to think about who we are, what we want and not to listen to unwanted thoughts in our heads. Watching a film or a series, probably a thriller or a drama, as new comedies are very hard to find nowadays, is probably the most common. We have a shower and go to bed. And the next day the same starts again…

Is there something wrong with the above? It all depends on what is important for you, what you want from life, whether you are happy and content with your life the way it is or whether there is something you would like to change.

Is there something that strikes you about the example of a daily routine? How much time do you think is spent in the present, living in the now, consciously creating one’s life, paying attention to thoughts, feelings and actions and making sure they come from the place of love instead of fear, really truly enjoying one’s life, being grateful and being happy? I would argue that sadly not much at all.

Instead of focusing on what happens right now, we tend to concentrate on the next thing we are going to do and are therefore never present. Do we create anything new or just recreate the same? By living in the past or future, mainly in a place of fear, reliving a situation, judging, blaming, feeling guilty, worrying about a possible scenario, wishing our lives were different and therefore never properly being satisfied, we bring more of the same to us, more problems, more worries and more discontent.

We can’t change our lives if we are not present, if we don’t pay attention to our thoughts, feelings and actions, to who we really are and what we want.

How often do we make an effort to find reasons to be grateful for our lives? How often do we consciously pause and enjoy the moment? Do we live in the now or mainly in the past and future? When we go for a walk, do we notice trees, plants, flowers or birds singing, do we appreciate the sun on our face, the wind, the snow or even the rain or do we think about our problems? When we are with our loved ones or friends, do we really see them?

Do we sleepwalk through our lives?

Can we truly be happy if we are continuously somewhere else but in the now? Real happiness can only be found inside and only by being present we can connect to who we really are.

The bottom line is that life happens right now. If we do not pay attention to it, we will miss it. The moment that we lost by not being present will not come back, we can’t rewind it.

The most important questions are: ‘What is it that you want?’, ‘What is important for you?’.

It is never too late to consciously start creating your life, to focus on the present, on being love and find more reasons to love yourself and your life. Every day is a new beginning.

The more present you are in your life, the more wonderful things you are going to discover, things that have always been there but were missed by you looking somewhere else 💜