Give yourself the Present of Present

Many people live their life either in the Past or the Future, when they must be living in the Present. They keep living in the past by recalling the past and experiencing what they experienced in the past. This could be their chronic thoughts. They relive past memories ( mostly bad and hurtful ones) over and over again. While doing this, they feel the same feelings which they had felt at some point in the past. They feel those feelings as if the experience is happening to them right now. Not only do they keep feeling the same emotion which they had felt some time back in life, but they tend to stay in the same mood and behave accordingly.

Some people live in the future by obsessing and worrying about what will happen. Sometimes people keep imagining what all might go wrong in the future. They feel as if they are in that future moment already and emotions arise in them according to the scenario they have imagined. By imagining to be in the situation that might not even occur in the future, they punish themselves for no reason. For instance, a person imagining himself in an office argument that might happen in the future but has not happened yet.

So how can one live in the present moment and not live in the past or the future?

Past experiences can be viewed in two terms. First is what they made you feel combined with thinking what might or should have happened. Second and an alternative approach is to seek learning from that experience and grow accordingly. You can only stop living in the past once you learn from the past experiences. Once the learning is acquired, the past can be viewed in the light of that learning rather than in terms of all negative emotions felt at that particular time.

When thinking about the future , one might wallow in what might go wrong or all the ifs and buts of your plan. Another approach is to plan your way into the future, with flexibility and motivation. One can stop living in the future by making goals and working towards them, by having a plan towards the future and then one can mold his way and be flexible to work through any challenges that might come his way. After this, one needs to take action in the present.

So give yourself the gift of Present.

I wish you well in all your pursuits. May you stay motivated always.