How To Practice Living In The Present Moment

We find ourselves on the lookout for happiness. We seek to be better, wiser people. But oftentimes, it is unclear to us what road leads to personal improvement.

You’d be surprised how simple it is to begin this journey (of true mindfulness).

We spend so much of our time evading our current situation by being absorbed in regrets about the past and expectations of the future. We forget the present offers us all the opportunities and carries all the possibilities we’ll ever have.

This very moment!

So, how to practice living in the present moment?

The present is where you grow

Shedding the weight of past memories and future expectations leaves room for you to grow in your present state.

The past and future are out of our grasp and depend entirely on the present. Everything that ever happens takes place in the flow of present moments.

The past, to a certain extent, is imaginary. At the time when it was occurring, it was a present moment. Even when you are reminded of a memory, that reminiscence, too, is experienced in the present.

The past and future are a compilation of present moments – those which already happened, and those which are yet to be.

How to practice living in the present moment

Living in the present, you will find yourself

If you let go of the worries you have about past mistakes and missed opportunities and ponder the future less, you will find yourself living in the present.

This will greatly simplify your day-to-day living, and a load of your problems will lessen. Now you will only be dealing with situations that can be resolved immediately.

Take, for instance, the completion of a big project, like an academic paper. The more you think about all the work you didn’t do on time and the approaching deadlines, the more stressed you will grow.

But if you divide your workload into parts – research, analysis, write-up – the task will be much more manageable.

Allow yourself to let go of your attachments to the past and the future.

Let go of your attachments to the past and future. Stay in the present moment and enjoy a growing satisfaction with your life.

If you are attached to your painful experiences as a coping mechanism, you will keep creating them for yourself.

Once the comforting cushions of past and future are removed from your day-to-day existence, how will you cope with pain in the present moment?

Most suffering arises from our unrecognized resistance to situations and people we can’t change.

Emotional pain is a manifestation of the deeper feelings of helplessness in the face of adversity.

Habituated to living in the past and future, we often avoid interacting with things as they are. The distance between our image of things and their reality breeds discomfort which translates into feelings of pain.

The Pain-Body

Consider yourself a “pain-body” for all the suffering you’ve caused.

Each time you get hurt, your pain-body grows. The stronger it gets, the more influence it has on you, and the more susceptible you become to the gloomy states it favors.

This vicious cycle can go on indefinitely. Many of us are so ingrained in the experiences of our pain-body that we start identifying with them.

At this stage, a person becomes addicted to pain and there is a real fear that letting go of pain would mean losing a part of one’s self.

In moments of anger and annoyance, when you find it hard to control yourself, your pain body has taken over. It obscures your ability to act reasonably as its interest is to make you experience more suffering so it can grow.

The perception that suffering is external is faulty. And though realizing that all your pain is self-created might be distressing at first, you will also gradually recognize that this means there is a way for you to act on it.

You may not be able to change the whole world, but you are capable of changing yourself.

Focus and Actionable Tips:

By focusing only on the present – and ignoring the past or future – you can greatly improve your life.
A part of you requires pain to survive, and it is this part of you that causes the majority of the pain you feel.
The ego is a portion of your mind that prevents you from experiencing happiness.
Separate yourself from your mind and focus on your body if you desire a richer, nearly painless life.
Observing the mind without judgment is the best way to separate from it, and thus free yourself from pain.
Try to exist in a state of permanent alertness.
Living in the present can be hard for your partner, but it can also improve your relationship.
Not all pain is avoidable: surrendering to the moment does not imply avoiding unpleasant or harmful feelings.
Surrendering to the present does not mean living a passive life.