Live in the moment.
We’ve all heard this. Probably dozens, hundreds, thousands of times. It’s both sage advice and trendy adage: You can buy hipster magnets for your fridge, and probably wallpaper your house with like quotations printed off brainyquote.com. No one really disagrees with the sentiment…But hearing it doesn’t necessarily mean you actually do it.
We all get caught up in our day to day, or worse, our yesterday and our tomorrow. It’s easy to become too overwhelmed by how much you have to do, by what didn’t get done, and how it can possibly all get done in time. So easy to forget that the only moment that matters, the only moment that’s real, is the one that is unfolding right in this very moment. The past is gone and the future is not guaranteed- this, right now, is what is real. And it deserves all of your attention. It becomes a lot more difficult to worry when the only moment you need to be concerned with is already happening.
Mindfulness is exactly this- paying attention to what is happening as it is happening. Watching the steam rise from your tea, listening to the crunch of leaves underfoot, smelling the rain on the asphalt- this is life happening around you. How many sounds can you hear, if you stop to notice them? Living in the moment allows us to fully appreciate the richness of the world around us, of our experience as human beings.
Do not let one day go by without reveling in the joy of being alive, because of all of life’s mysteries, death is the most certain: it will surely happen to all of us. And if that day was coming sooner than you expected, or wanted, or hoped- would you still be happy with the quality of yours?
