Why it’s important to live in the present

“The only moment in which you can be truly alive is the present moment”
Thich Nhat Hanh

How many times in a day you were present at the moment, just living it, not regretting the past and not anticipating the future ?

I guess most of the answers will have a low number or no number at all.

Let’s take an example –
You are trying to learn a new thing of which you had 2 vain attempts earlier. Now decide what you should be thinking at that moment?

Regretting the mistakes you committed in earlier attempts and will this attempt be fruitful or not.
OR
You are focusing on your work, trying to give 100%, just letting yourself go with the flow.

Certainly the latter one, but we usually go with the first one.

Our mind is a wandering animal, it dwells upon a thought for a minute and in another minute it jumps to another. It is your memory box as well as kind of “Dr. Strange” *( will see many possibilities of future events).
So it would remind you of your past , and will make you undergo through ” Future – tripping “.

What’s the point of frequently looking back to your past, which is irreversible. You can’t change your past mistakes, that time has gone, so just don’t remember it and hurt your feelings ( you have lessons from past that are needed to be remembered indispensably for a lifetime).

Getting stuck on past accomplishments is of no use. You had achieved some great things in the past, but you need to do so much more. You need to live more, laugh more, achieve more.

And similarly, why to worry about the future, it hasn’t arrived yet, what it has stored for us we can’t determine. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dream about the future, be ambitious, set goals but the fact is for fulfilling them we need to work today. Dreaming about the future is only productive when combined with the action taken today.

There are many benefits of being in present only, that can mitigate your many personality blemishes –

1. Better social communication – For some people communicating could be a tall order .They get nervous around people.
When you are in present only, you just listen to the person talking, connect with it, and respond or reply accordingly. You just let things flow out of you.
A better part could be that maybe you too can become best friends someday.

2. Improved creativity – If you are indulging in creative things , you know that having a prime focus on your art is the basic requirement.
You just need to live the process of doing your favorite things.When you just live the moment, you create mental blocks that stop your creativity from flowing unhindered.

3. Admiring and valuing – When you start living every moment , you start to admire the surroundings. Nature will fascinate you much more.
You will be interested in things that earlier seemed chaotic to you.
And with people you will be more open, you will not judge, will not label anyone.Things will start falling easier for you, you will be more open – minded.

4. Less of an overthinker – For people like me who are overthinking most of the time, just focusing on the present is quite helpful.
We seems to do round and round thinking over the past, and the upcoming future. But if we try to live in the present, that would distract from the constant chaos in the mind. With no expectations from the future , you will be less disappointed. It would certainly take time to stop overthinking but it needed to be practiced.

5. Low Stressed – Being in present , just here , living it. No worries ,the mind is entirely occupied with only a thing. You are calm, having no stress.

6. More energetic , focused , happier , confident – As you will let go of worries and regrets , you will free your mind. You will feel more energetic.
The only thing important will be the present , so you will be focused on it only.
You’ll enjoy the in hand tasks , just happy to be working upon them with full concentration , and you’ll be appreciative of your efforts.
Living in present will make you more self – aware , you will recognise your abilities , your flaws.
This will help you to bring changes to your personality and make you more confident.

Living in present certainly requires some kind of mind control , you need to practice it , and try to cultivate this habit. There are some tips that can help you with this –

• Start meditation – Meditation is the best exercise to calm down your thoughts , be more focused on the present. Start meditating for 15 mins. every day.

• Stop multitasking – I don’t think multitasking is a good idea. We aren’t giving 100 % to any one of the tasks , and that is an injustice to our mind which needs to switch to several tabs accordingly with the different tasks.

This whole article can be sum with this :

“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.”

Alice Morse Earle