Living In The Moment

In today’s fast paced and ever changing world, it is very important to practice the ancient mindset of living in the moment. Living in the moment is a key ingredient in maintaining one’s self awareness and overall positive mental health. The past and future should be be viewed from a peripheral point of view. There are many lessons to be learned from the past but to live there will stunt the growth and an individual. To live only in the future will leave one blindsided by unforeseen circumstances taking place in the present and you will also miss those valuable lessons from the past. The real beauty of the past is empowering memories of one’s life, both good and bad. They are only memories yet they have so much energy and power associated with them. At any given moment we can pull up past memories and examine them again and again, from many different angles. This could be why some people are stuck in their past lives, never able to escape from either very happy times or very destructive and painful times. The past can really be a Pandora’s box of emotions. The future is also very empowering for our goal setting and dreams of our futures but can also be very intoxicating because it is so pliable and not reality yet. It is just as easy to get stuck in the future as it is in the past and can have similar effects on the individual. This is why it is so important to live our lives in the present moment and use the past and future as reference guides. All of nature lives in the present moment but is always preparing for the future as the seasons change. We learn by referencing our past otherwise we might never try to walk again after falling down over and over as toddlers. The animal kingdom works in a similar way, learning about the world around them by experiencing it. It is really a fine balance of past, present and future to be well rounded in our human experience. There are some that only live in the present moment, never analyzing their past nor thinking about the future. They often end up in very precarious situations in their lives because they never cared to introspect nor think about the future. I find it interesting that in an emergency situation, we will totally snap into the moment and become hyper focused on the situation at hand. This is very much how things work in nature. It is interesting that when we go against nature, bad things often occur. So the next time you notice a beautiful flower, a gorgeous sunset or sunrise, the innocence of children at play, take some time to just live in the moment and capture incredible memories that you can examine at a later date.