Living in the present moment

Living in the Present Moment is important.

One way to combat immobilization, however slight, is to learn to live in the present moment. 

Present-moment living, getting in touch with your “now,” is at the heart of effective living. When you think about it, there really is no other moment you can ever live. 

Now is all there is, and the future is just another present moment to live when it arrives. 

One thing is certain; you cannot live it until it does appear. The problem. here, however, is that we live in a culture which deemphasizes the now..

Save for the future! Consider the consequences. Don’t be a hedonist. Think of tomorrow. Plan for your retirement. : 

Avoiding the present moment is almost a disease in our culture, and we are continually being conditioned to sacrifice the present for the future. 

Carried to its logical conclusion, this attitude is not merely the avoidance of enjoyment in the now, but an evasion of happiness forever. 

When the future does arrive it becomes the present and we must use it to prepare for the future. Happiness is something for the morrow and therefore ever elusive. 

The disease of present-moment avoidance assumes many forms. Here are four typical examples of such dodging behavior. 

Ms. Bimbo decides to go into the woods to soak Up nature and get in touch with her present moments, While in the woods she lets her mind wander and focuses on all of the things that she should be doing back home. . , , The kids, the groceries, the house, the bills, is everything O.K.? At other times her mind bits forward to all of the things she’ll have to do when sne gets out of the woods. There goes the present, Occupied by past and future events, and that rare opportunity for present-moment delight in that natural setting and spends her entire vacation basking in the sun——not for the delight of feeling the sun on her body, but in anticipation of what her friends back home will say when she returns with a magnificent tan. Her mind is on a future moment, and when that future moment arrives, shell bemoan not being able to be back at the beach sunning herself. 

If you think society doesn’t contribute to this sort of attitude, consider the slogan of one sun lotion company, “They'll hate you more back home if you use this product.” 

Mr. Chuks  has a problem with impotence. When he is experiencing the present moment with his wife, his mind is off and running on some past or future event, and his present just slips away. When he finally manages to concentrate on the present and begins making love, he imagines her to be someone else, while she similarly fantasizes about her absent lover. 

Mr. Abubakar is reading a textbook and working hard at staying with it. Suddenly he discovers that he has just read three pages and his mind was on a mental excursion. He wasn’t absorbing a single idea. He was avoiding the material on those pages even while his eyes were focusing on each word. He was literally participating in the-ritual of reading, while his present moments were being taken up by thinking about last night’s movie or worrying about tomorrow’s quiz. 

The present moment, that elusive time which is always with you, can be most beautifully experienced if you allow yourself to get lost in it. Drink in all of every moment and tune out that past which is over and the future which will arrive in time. Seize the present moment as the only one you have. And remember, wishing, hoping and regretting are the most common and dangerous tactics for evading the present.

Frequently avoidance of the present leads to idealization of the future. At some miraculous moment in the future life will change, everything will fall into place, and you will find happiness. When you achieve that special event—a graduation, a wedding, a child, a promotion—then life will begin in earnest.