Living in the Moment

Living in the moment

Living in the moment is a difficult one for me, I so often find my brain focusing full speed ahead on the jobs that need to be done tomorrow or next week, using up so much energy on what will happen, rather then enjoying and living in the moment with all my senses awake.

As young children (providing our needs were met) we didn’t worry much about our past or our future. We simply experienced the wonder of the world each day we were in it. We existed in the present. As we grow up, this sadly, seems to gets lost, we begin constantly thinking about our future and pick up the bad habit of dwelling on our past.

It becomes all about tomorrow – tomorrow I will stop eating chocolate, tomorrow I will make a positive change to my life. Or even worse, yesterday, my friend offended me so tomorrow I won’t call her etc. You get the picture.

Living in the moment is all about living like there is no tomorrow, realising the beauty in every moment and activity as we live it.

So how do we break these habits and learn how to live in the present?

Firstly, and crucially we must become mindful of every action we undertake. We must remind ourselves to take note of every feeling, sensation and emotion. Begin noticing the little things – chewing and tasting our food, feeling the wind on our skin, noticing how our children light up with pleasure at the simplest of things.

In short we must fully focus on awakening our existence in the now.

This is not an easy task. Our habit of living in the past or focusing on our future is a difficult one to break.

So what can you do right now to live in the moment? Take a deep breath in, open your eyes and awaken to the beauty of now!

I will leave you with a quote by Jeb Dickerson I enjoy on this:

‘I need neither future nor past, but to learn to take today not too fast.’

Claire Macpherson