The Time Is Always Now

Fast-paced lives, looking towards the future, making plans for a better tomorrow, or dwelling on the past, reliving your life's worst traumatic events or most uncomfortable and embarrassing experiences, wishing we could turn back time and do things differently. If only... that's often what we live by. If only I could get a bonus next month, if only I hadn't said that, if only I could win the lottery then I would.

While reliving our life or wishing it away, we totally miss what actually happens to us, right now, in the Present moment.

Have you ever noticed that when your mind is racing with past experiences and preferred alternative outcomes, or you are busy thinking about future plans filled with excitement or dread, you barely breathe? Enough to be alive, for sure, but not deeply, in a restorative manner and purposefully. It is also true when we are stressed, by the way. Breathe...

The Present moment is actually all we have, it is who we are. What we were in the past is gone and what we will be or do in the future hasn't happened yet, some part of it at least out of our control, and, for many various reasons, it might never happen.

It is not to discard the amazing value of the past, learning from our experiences and growing, and the future, making plans and working towards worthy goals to better yourself, your environment and/or your community, but to refocus our attention to the fact that, by forgetting the Present moment, a beautiful piece of the puzzle, we do not live our life fully, enjoying even the little things, consciously. We let it slide and give the power to external sources to lead our life for us.

Focusing on the present moment can be as simple as focusing on your breathing and body response, on your sensations when walking outside - the breeze on your skin, the ground below your feet, the energy in your body when in motion, or stillness, the sun shining in your eyes, the birds singing in the trees, or the dogs barking! Or observing people and surroundings on the bus. When you start focusing on the present moment, you will immediately notice that you automatically slow down. You are not judgmental, you are but an observer of yourself, your inner space, as well as everything around you. Everything and everyone is part of a whole. You feel more alive as you've ever been. It is a beautiful experience.

In a previous article, I presented the Wake Up Your Senses exercise. If you're not sure where to start and you feel that only focusing on your breath will be boring, this is a great exercise to start fully being in the Present moment. For the Present moment is where you truly exist. You know the famous saying, "There is no time like the Present", really, there truly isn't. All our fully lived experiences and sensations happened there - or should I say, here.

The present moment not only opens doors to your fully conscious living, experiencing every sensation possible, but also to opportunities in your relationships to others. The Perfect Time is always now to let a colleague or a loved one know how grateful you are to have them in your life and how much you appreciate them, or notice something amazing or brave they have done.
I fully understand that now that both my parents have died and, despite our complicated relationship, I never told them how much I loved them, even if I wanted to on many occasions while they were still alive, but felt too embarrassed to do so.

Taking the present moment as is and experiencing it as is helps you fight the inner struggle and the barriers you put on yourself that prevent you from moving forward, because we always move forward, in the end - into the next Present moment.

Keeping our gaze on the Present moment opens up your mind and intuition, makes you more open to possibilities and solutions, more compassionate towards yourself and others, and is the best remedy I know against regrets and missed opportunities.

Live your life fully and enjoy it NOW - Carpe Diem, seize the day - fully and consciously.