Not an idle question. We tend to relive yesterday or we plan for tomorrow and/or both, but… do we miss now in the process? It really is a legitimate question and one I’ve asked any number of times in various and sundry ways… still relevant – where do we spend the vast majority of our ‘living’ time, our thought life? One should never quickly respond with ‘now’ because that isn’t always the case. It should be our modus operandi but it isn’t always the reality.
What keeps us from living in the now? What takes our attention away from the memories we are making right now? And equally important – why do we allow it? Granted it sometimes is to provide a momentary escape from the issues and problems of right now but where do you typically head first – yesterday or tomorrow? Is it easier for you to savor the victories and successes of yesterday or the potential for tomorrow? Perhaps an equally important question is: how long do you stay in yesterday or tomorrow?
Regardless of the headaches, problems, obstacles, etc. that you face in your today… if you don’t face them then they will impact on tomorrow. You do realize this, yes? Ignoring, denying has never been an effective response. I do admit that sometimes you need some time to quickly assess or catch your breath – everyone needs times of ‘escape’ from what’s happening as a kind of cobwebs cleaning – but then you need to return to the now reality. Actually, if we use our ‘away’ time profitably we may discover resolutions to the issues we are facing.
However, do remember that now isn’t all problems and issues. There are positives that exist as well, and if you live outside of ‘now’ you may not experience them. Now can produce new paradigms to consider which may impact on tomorrow. Now is an anchor which, without an involvement in now, we may miss some important learnings and we also may miss some delightful ‘accidents’. Now speaks immediacy and this discovery enhances our understanding of ourselves. Again, I know I return to this theme often but it’s because I really believe that it’s important to be mindful of what we do and what we focus on. Visit yesterday and tomorrow but embrace your now!
