How to live in the present moment?
How can we live more in the present moment?
If you’re reading this, I’m assuming that the idea of “living in the present” is not a new concept to you. You’ve probably read advice such as:
“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly” Buddha
or…
“I always live in the present. The future I can’t know. The past I no longer have.” Fernando Pessoa
What I find fascinating about movements like this, is that if we need to read entire books on living in the present and consistently train ourselves in the difficult practices of mindfulness and meditation…then it suggests to a certain extent that this doesn’t come naturally to us, right?
The question then becomes: why is living in the present so hard? Why with the slightest moment of inattention we find ourselves mentally time-travelling to the past (“what did she mean by that comment?”) or mentally time-travelling to the future (“What time should I leave the house to get there in time?”).
Mental time-travel is an incredible gift and a wonderful strength that is innately human. It’s something that allows us to build a future we desire and learn lessons from the past.
Now I’m not trying to out-wise Buddha or even disagree the suggestion that we should live more in the present, but I’m simply doing what I do best: opening up a dialogue on a different point of view. Living in the present, future and past are all important and necessary. Let’s first discuss when and how we should live in the present…
Living in the present
There’s huge value in practicing to leave thoughts of the past and future to the side and focusing more on living in the present. One of these reasons is very simply that the past no longer exists, and the future does not yet exist, therefore the present is the only thing that is real.
With that also comes a very special and unique feeling of peace. Mentally living in the future often comes with feelings of stress and worry. Mentally living in the past often comes with feelings of nostalgia, reminiscence and longing. In the present you can find peace. By leaving behind what “this will lead to in the future” and “what this means compared to the past” we can detach ourselves from judgement and feel nothing but serenity.
Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross is quoted as saying that there are only two emotions: love and fear. When we find ourselves living mentally in the future, we live in fear of what the future will bring. When we live mentally in the past we live in fear that the present will bring the same or different from our previous experiences.
In the present, we live in peace, we live with love.
So how can we live more in the present?
1. Practice meditation. If you’re new to the practice, note that it’s not easy and remember that you can’t be “good” or “bad” at it. Even if you find yourself with a whirlwind of thoughts the entire time, you still gave yourself that moment of stillness. You still gave yourself a moment of silence when your mind was screaming for busyness. If you don’t know where you begin, you can find free guided meditations from a variety of experts in a variety of styles on my IGTV.
2. Practice mindfulness. We live most of our lives in autopilot and thank god we do, can you imagine how exhausting it would be if you had to think about breathing? There is huge benefit however in reconnecting with the things we do without thinking such as breathing exercises, eating mindfully and moving slowly and consciously.
3. When you find yourself sucked into a mental time travel, bring yourself back to the now by taking a moment to notice your surroundings. Look around at your environment. What have you often looked at but never really noticed? What can you notice looks different or interesting? What around you looks beautiful?
4. Revert back to your present internal world when you find yourself time travelling mentally. Look inwards and ask some deeper reflection questions. How are you feeling right now? Where might you be feeling tension? Can you breathe into that space? What’s the temperature around you like? What do you feel on your skin?