Being Mindfully Present

There’s the saying, “Today is tomorrow that you worried about yesterday.” While it’s humorous, it rings true for the majority of us.  We’re so busy worrying about, thinking about, contemplating, planning, getting anxious over what has happened and what has yet to happen.   There’s no time to just be.  The “to do” list grows.  We cram our schedules full of activity but hardly have any time to enjoy them.  We’re so busy trying to rectify past actions that we can’t have gratitude for the present moment. 

photo courtesy of pachd.com
photo courtesy of pachd.com

When someone asks what you did yesterday, or over the weekend, do you often say, “I can’t even remember.”  Or do you remark at times, “I can’t even remember what I did today.”   This happens more often then we’d like to admit to ourselves, or to others.  Why is that?  We are so busy trying to achieve, accomplish, and plan, that we fail to rejoice in what is presently presented to us.

Try this for one hour first.  Be present to everything that is happening to and around you.  Pay attention to those noises that you usually drown out – your co-workers, the kids, your neighbors, traffic, the radio, etc.   Don’t judge them.  Just watch whatever comes up in your mind and do nothing about it.

If you eat, be conscious of what you are eating, how it was cooked, and how it tastes. Really engage your tastes buds and senses.  Savor the aroma & the flavor.

If you’re walking up or down a flight of stairs, pay attention to each step as you take it and really notice the steps.

Pay attention to your breath and how you hold your breath when you get stressed, nervous or anxious.  Then, it’s easier for things to “get on your nerves” because your nervous system is highly sensitized to all events.

This anxiety leads to an imbalance in the body and the state of dis-ease.  When illness occurs, we start to re-think many things and how we could have prevented it.

We cannot re-live any moment of our lives, regardless of how much we regret it or enjoyed it.  What we can do is learn from where we have been, create a plan for where we’d like to go and execute it, and remember to rejoice in the present moment.