Living in the present

Seize the moment! Live like there’s no tomorrow! Make the most of now! Now’s the moment! All these things, we are well aware of. Some of us live in the future, most of us are busy re-living the past. How many of us actually manage to live in the present? We spend too much time planning our future, and the remaining time in pondering how we should have reacted in the past. We never spend a day’s minute thinking about what we can do now, to make this moment worth living.

                I was amongst those who spent time worrying about the future and bickering over the past. My past was full of pleasant memories, so the flashback moments always brought a smile to my face. But then I began to worry that my future wouldn’t have these joyous moments. I realized over a matter of time, that I was losing too much precious time in just predicting what may happen. Sadly, there was no way to guarantee my predictions. Needless to say, most of my predictions fell flat and I happened to encounter the unpredictable almost every time.

                This time, I decided to use a new technique. I decided to enjoy my past and not to worry about my future. This did make me happy, no doubt. But I was left with ample free time. So I decided to “seize the moment” as it’s said. I found it a good practice. I learnt to find joy in everything. All my thoughts were just spent in making my present beautiful. Now, I’m not saying that one shouldn’t worry about the consequences of his actions and just enjoy the moment and land up being nowhere in the end. I’m just saying that one should not put unnecessary thought process into action and ruin the present. This whole living in the present formula, worked wonders. I wish I had followed it earlier. I couldn’t help thinking how much of time I could have saved if I had quit knitting dreams of the future and just focused on this moment.

                This method worked well for quite some time. But it had its own flaws. When my present was suffering, I was suffering without breaks. There was nothing to set me free. No matter where I went, I always returned to my present circumstances. It can be quite maddening at times. The whole act of being in the present and making the most of it suddenly seemed like a stupid thing to do. There was no escape for me.

That is when I realized visiting our past, predicting our future were just escape doors for me. They were the secret passages in the fort of my life, where I could escape when my present threatened me. It was then that I finally understood, all of us need to go to our happy moments. We need to feel them to sustain. When our present doesn’t give us joy, we tend to look a little backwards in life. And if we don’t find it there, we move a little ahead of time to search for it in our future.