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Here’s Why The Present Moment Is The Only Moment You’ll Ever Have |
Free Yourself From Your Mind
You are not your mind.
As strange or unusual as this may sound, it is true. Your mind has an inner voice that seems to speak freely. You are a separate part of your mind that can reason and converse with that inner voice. My theory is that the inner voice belongs to the subconscious mind and you are the conscious mind.
That inner voice is automatic and with a bit of practice you can observe and watch that inner voice, and ultimately come to the point where you are no longer controlled by it. You will be able to listen to it and use its constructive remarks and discard its destructive remarks.
By becoming aware of this inner voice and by being able to listen to your thoughts, you reach an entirely new level of consciousness where you can experience being present and living life in the moment, every moment.
Why Live In The NOW?
The present moment or NOW is the only moment where you ever truly live life.
- All decisions are made in the present moment.
- All emotions are felt in the present moment.
- All actions are taken in the present moment.
All the time you spend reminiscing about the past or worrying about the future is time of your life that you could be enjoying right now.
Has any amount of wishing the past were different ever changed the past?
Has any amount of worrying about the future ever benefited you?
The best way to get the most enjoyment out of life is to spend as much time as possible in the present moment. It’s okay to think about the past every now and then and it is okay to dream about the future, as long as you realize that the only time you will ever have is right NOW. So enjoy as much of NOW as possible, every single day.
Not only do you get the most enjoyment out of life by living in the present moment, you also remove restrictions and self-limiting beliefs. When you are in the present moment you have access to your full potential.
When someone is chased or is in a situation where they absolutely have to do something they are fully in the present moment. The past does not matter and the future is not an issue. In situations like this people run faster, are stronger and think more clearly. There is no past to limit them to historic results and limitations and there is no future that paralyzes them with fear when thinking of possible outcomes.
When you live in the present moment you are free and anything is possible.
4 Ways To Live In The NOW
- Accept That The Past Will Never Change
Many people spend a lot of their time reminiscing about the past. Whether it be because they had really good times that are no longer around or whether it be because they made some bad decisions that they wish they could change.The fact is that no matter how much you think about the past or wish it was different, it will never change.One you have accepted this fact, you no longer have the need to spend time wishing the past was different and can instead use that time to live fully in the present moment.
- Accept That The Future Is Unpredictable
The future is coming towards you, second by second, hour by hour, day by day. Sometimes it works out exactly as we want it to, but more often than not the future is always different to how we imagine it.All the time we spend worrying about any sort of event in the future that may or may not come (like getting fired, breaking up with your lover, how your health will be etc) is time wasted. No matter how much time you spend worrying or thinking about the future, you are not going to be able to predict it (although sometimes by pure luck it will happen as you want it to).
By accepting the fact that the future is unpredictable, you can enjoy your time and focus your energy in the present, prepare yourself as best you can for the future and wait for what tomorrow brings instead of spending your time worrying about what will happen.
- Count Your Breaths
One of the quickest and easiest ways to be in the present moment is to take a minute or two and literally count every inhale and exhale you make.When you are counting your breaths you will most likely become aware of all your other senses. What you see, what you hear, how the air feels on your skin and and tastes or smells there may be.
Be Present With Every Action
One great way to live every moment in the NOW is by being consciously aware of every action you take. For example, when you wash the dishes, instead of zoning out while doing it, be aware of every action and movement you make. Instead of getting in the car every morning and switching into autopilot until you get to work, be consciously aware of every action and motion required to operate and drive your car.
‘Tomorrow’ Is An Illusion
So many people are waiting for ‘some day’ or ‘one day’ in order to start living the life they really want. The truth is that tomorrow is not real, it is an illusion. The only time we ever have is the present moment, every moment of every day until we die.
As my parting words about living in the present moment I want to leave you with the following story :
“A Japanese warrior was captured by his enemies and thrown into prison. That night he was unable to sleep because he feared that the next day he would be interrogated, tortured, and executed. Then the words of his Zen master came to him,
“Tomorrow is not real. It is an illusion. The only reality is now.”
Heeding these words, the warrior became peaceful and fell asleep. “
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Accept That The Past Will Never Change
Be Present With Every Action
Those are 2 very valid points. Fashion Czar Karl Lagerfeld has a similar approach: the past is boring, it has been done. I’m only interested in the future.
My presence training is getting better with every day, especially when it comes to flirting with girls
Hey Mars!
The past is definitely something to learn from though but other than that there is little point in thinking about it.
Nice to hear you are getting better with girls:P
Hey Mars,
I’ve noticed the same thing when it comes to flirting. When we’re present we tend to be much more charismatic and charming. We also become much more detached from outcomes.
Amen brother!
You can’t live today what will happen tomorrow, because tomorrow is not here yet, and you can’t live today what happened yesterday, because yesterday is gone. You can only think about them, but then you loose this moment.
Hey Eduard!
Glad you liked it! Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Diggy
How are things on your side?
In total agreement with the past being the past and that there is no point in worrying about it, however I am not sure that I could not worry about the future.
What if you have to make a decision about your career like whether you would rather enjoy that “freedom from worrying” and hence not do anything to further your career path or suffer now and reap the future long term benefits when you do worry? So a simple example would be when you choose to live in the present and not study for your future exam.
Or worrying about something simple like who is going to pick you up from the airport next week.
Is there then a point to worrying about the future?
With that being said, living in the present does sound like an appealing way of living life. If only it were as simple as it sounds
Great post though, really makes one think of how much time goes wasted into pointless dwelling.
Heya Phyllis!
I’m doing good thanks! Had a really nice and relaxing weekend. How about you?
Of course it’s natural to worry about the future, but the word worry and the state it implies is not a good one. Worry creates anxiety and fear. I think it’s good to think about the future and to contemplate all the possibilities you have and try to anticipate the consequences of actions you will take. But make a decision and stick to it, or change it if you feel you must, just don’t burn up so much emotional energy worrying about whether or not the future will be good or bad.
I’m not saying you can’t think about the past or dream about the future, I’m saying that you should make it useful when you do, and for the rest live in the present.
The past is good to use as a tool to learn from and every now and then nice to think back of good times. There is no point in wishing the past was any different on a daily basis because it will never change.
The future is rather uncertain, so while it makes sense to think about possible senarios and your goals, it is bad to imagine all sorts of problems, drama or even daydream for hours a day without taking any action to realize your dreams (unless you really enjoy doing that). So it is good to think “What could happen if I do xyz” or “In a few years I want to have made enough so I can travel the world for multiple years until I find a beautiful place I want to live for the rest of my life” and make plans about your future. What I think is bad is if you worry all day about “will I get hit by a bus” “Will i pass my exam” “will I get fired about my job” etc.
Hope that makes sense!?
Have a beautiful day!:)
LOVE this post, of course! Really, truly, the present moment IS all we’ll ever have and once I realized that, my whole life changed. Living in the past or future is never helpful and never leads to a positive existence so live in the now!
I’m pretty sure that warrior still got tortured the next morning!
That is probably true, but he got a good night’s rest:)
Dang it man, you got me with that Japanese warrior quote. After reading the quote, I thought, “well what happened to the warrior the next day, did he get tortured.” And then it hit me, there is no tomorrow, so it doesn’t matter, and thus the point of the quote.
I totally love that. Adding that quote to the end was a perfect execution of using a quote to slam home a point.
Hey Eric!
Yeah I really like that quote. We are not in control of what the future brings but
we are in control of what we do with this moment right now. Tomorrow may be bad or it may be good, but it does not need to affect this moment right now for better or worse. It’s interesting to think about:)
Diggy,
Perhaps the greatest benefit I gain from my time surfing is extreme levels of presence that I don’t necessarily experience at other moments in my life. Of course, I’m continually making efforts to maintain presence.
Presence is an incredibly powerful thing. If practiced in everything we do, every action we take, we really do put our best foot forward. When I asked a marketing director at my internship two summers ago what the key was to getting ahead quickly in your career, she said presence. It made sense to me finally because then you are doing the best work you can do today. If you are too focused on a promotion or the future then you are not doing your best work today.
I’m guessing much of this post was inspired by Eckhart Tolle
. I loved the Power of Now and A New Earth.
Hey Srinivas!
I totally agree with you, any action that requires physical effort or extreme sport is one that allows you to be 100% present and forget about past and future! Whether it be surfing, snowboarding, racing or fighting.
Yeah I recently browsed through The Power of Now again, a really book:)
Thanks for stopping by!
Nice point of view, especially regarding the worries about the future. Many people fear the future more than the fact they are wasting their time while worrying.
I love to daydream thinking of my life tomorrow and my experiences of yesterday, but I try to always keep in mind, that life happens “now”.
Kevin Spacey makes following quote in The Movie K-PAX:
“The universe will expand, then it will collapse back on itself, then will expand again… forever. What you don’t you know is that when the universe expands again, everything will be as it is now. Whatever mistakes you make this time around, you will live through on your next pass. Every mistake you make, you will live through again…forever. So my advice to you is to get it right this time around. Because this time is all you have.”
Best regards,
Andrés
Hey Andres!
I really enjoyed that movie. The thing that stuck out most for me was when he asked “Why is a soap bubble round?” and the other guy could not think of the answer, yet it was simply “because it is the most energy-efficient form”.
Thanks for stopping by!
“yesterday is history tomorrow is a mystery today is a gift thats why they call it the present” – not sure who said that first
Wow, very cool! Thanks for sharing that with us:)
… accepting the past and the future – this is a tough one…
btw – I want one of those watches
btw2 – today the strangest thing happened. I don’t believe in astrology/numerology etc hocus pokus, but today a friend of mine added my name/birthday to a form on a numerology site…
to my surprise, the site predicted some stuff about me – about my past, etc. Weird.
Yavor
Hey Yavor!
Yeah I want one too!
Hmm, interesting. I would like to try that. usually I’m a bit skeptical of those things, but I have seen some scary accurate prediction before so I won’t say no to it completely.I would like to try that site too, would you mind sharing it?
Diggy, unfortunately the site is in Bulgarian..
Hey Diggy,
Great post – as always, talking about presence is appreciated because it’s the one thing that really has improved my life.
One more tip for the readers out there: if you want to become present, just start doing everything you do on purpose. Think thoughts on purpose. Type words on purpose. Make every step you take be on purpose.
Doing things on purpose makes you feel super powerful and in the moment. I give it two thumbs up!
Hey Brett!
Thank you sir! That is a good suggestion btw, doing things with intent and on purpose are a great way of staying in the present and focusing on what you are doing right now!
Cheers
very nice words Diggy, i guess one of the main reasons of emotional pain is being attached to the past, when one let go of the past his mood changes
Hey Farouk!
I agree with you, once you let go of the past you are able to let go of all the negative feelings associated with it. EFT is a great method to do this, have you heard of EFT before?
Cheers!
Reflect on the past, dream for the future, but live in the now.
Easier said than done, but that is indeed the strategy to follow!
Thanks Claire:)
Living in the now is probably the most life changing thing I realized. Now it’s everything, anything else is only an illusion. Great post Diggy!
Cheers Oscar!
you need to go a little further.. to be able to perceive that the thinker is not separate from the thought…the observer is the observed…if you can see this inner movement in its entirety and follow it to the end… you stump your mind…you end thought and all that is left is pure observation…otherwise thoughts are of memory of time..not the present moment…”you think” you are in the present moment but you are still operating within the field of thought…the question then becomes can this movement end.. which means the ending of thought…its incredibly subtle…you will realize how cunning your mind really is…
Hey Ivan
Long time buddy, how are you doing?
Wow, thanks for sharing that! The mind is incredibly complex and amazing. I find that the only time I am truly 100% present is when Im doing something like racing my car or snowboarding down a mountain or sparring martial arts. There is no choice but to totally focus on the moment right then because any distractions lead to disaster. Besides, the rush is awesome:)
doing great my freind…enjoying life…becoming proficient with chop sticks lol..how are you?…are going to get to go to any world cup games?…and yes I feel
…please don’t start day dreaming while your doing a 360 jump down a mountain 
…people need you to stay in one piece 
I really enjoyed reading your blog post. It was thought-provoking and inspirational. Also, gave me some insights about my own life and living it in the moment. Very nice!
Hey Cynthia!
Thank you:) Happy to hear that you enjoyed it!
Have an awesome day!
Hey Diggy! How are you buddy? Sorry I’ve been away, I just got back from my workshop in Amsterdam.
“Be Present With Every Action”— This I must say, is a sticking point for me. I have so many “routines” I run through daily that I sometimes have no idea why I am doing what I’m doing.
“Just going through the motions”
Definitely something I’m trying to work on myself.
Cheers!
–Parker
Hey Parker,
I hope you enjoyed Amsterdam:)
Glad you liked the post, thanks for stopping by!
as i said before ,we have system in our brains for fear , we don’t have to neglect it because it’s sometimes has advantage .However, we have to manage our fears and not let them lose our sense of present and enjoyment of life second by second -this is my opinion-
I love the story at the end and it’s true. The past is gone. Done. Passed. The present is the only now and should be focused on completely. Prepare and have goals and dreams about the future but do not worry about it as there is no reason to. It’s literally not here yet and honestly never will be.
It will always just be the present.
Tomorrow will come but then it will be today so tomorrow will actually always just be a tomorrow in your mind until you make the choice today to start living your life in the now.
Love this, really.
Thanks for this. You’re a great writer!
Hey Eric!
Thank you very much! I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed my article!
Have a great weekend!
Diggy
Thanks,
Yeah I’m going to be having a good week I can already tell… Although my weekend kinda starts on Friday so that’s nice.
You have one too.
hi diggy!
just stumbled your blog through positively present. nice blog. very good insight especially on letting go of the past!!!
Do you think in the present moment?
I like to think and solve problems but if you have an empty mind like mushin? Or a present mind then how can you think?
Your too busy experiencing to think arnt you?
No wait it just gets rid of the unconcious thoughts that are a negative pain in the butt and you think with your concious mind only is that right?
Thanks for the superb info mate!
Hey Sam,
Yes I try to be in the present as much as possible, even though I still wonder off into the future and past sometimes.
By being present it is easier to solve problems, because you can focus all your thoughts and energy on that problem you are solving right now. There are no worries and regrets distracting your attention to the past or future, and thus you can concentrate easier.
Thanks for stopping by:)
Why is it fear and anger are mainly experience in the future or past and what does it have to do with the ego?
Also is it mainly positive emotions you feel in the present? Why is that?
Is the mindset the samurai or a great martial artist use (Mushin?) the same as what you have explained so well here? Is mushin simply being in the present moment or is it more than that is it an empty mind no thoughts and no emotions at all?
Sorry to be difficult xD
Hey Sam,
Don’t worry, I enjoy having conversations about these kinds of topics.
Of course I’m not too sure, but personally I think it’s easy to become angry or scared about the past and the future because of things you regret and because of things you don’t want to happen to you. However, that is a choice. You are able to make the decision if you are going to feel like this when you think of the past of future, but you also have the choice not to.
I definitely feel fear and anger in the present moment too. I think that everything is possible to feel in whatever state, past, present and future. It’s just how you picture it and what you train your mind to feel. Do some reading about NLP, it’s very intersting!
I have never heard of Mushin so I can’t really answer you on that one. I do know that many martial artists are taught to have complete awareness of their surroundings, almost like feeling everything that is going on around them. It’s definitely not about having no emotions, it’s more about becoming one with everything around you.
Hope this helped you!
Cheers
Diggy