How to Fully Live Each Moment

Life is meant to be lived. Just existing is not living at all. Living for the future, or even worse, living in the past is not living. It’s not even existing.

You see, the only moment we have is NOW. Let me say that again. The ONLY moment, the ONLY time we have is this moment, right NOW. The past is gone, done, over. That’s why we call it the past. You cannot change the past. The future has yet to come and, while you can alter the future, you can only do so by what you think, say, and do while you consciously live in the Now Moment.

There’s a lot of talk nowadays about living consciously and being mindful, but very few people fully understand what it means to live this way. When you live consciously, you live each moment in such a way that you are fully conscious (or mindful) of what you are doing. When you live this way, you are completely focused on what you are doing every single moment.

Children are very good at living consciously. Just watch a young child at play. They are so focused on what they are doing that they lose track of time and sometimes don’t even hear their parents call them until their name is called 2 or 3 times. It’s not that they’re not listening to their parents. It’s just that they’re so tuned in to what they are doing in the moment, that they’ve tuned out all other stimuli.

I know because I’ve been doing this for years. When I was a child, I would get so involved in whatever book I was reading that I wouldn’t hear my name called when it was time for dinner. Once, in high school study hall, one of my friends had to physically pull me out of my chair to get me out of the way of two kids who were fighting and coming our way. My friend had been sitting next to me and had called my name three times, however, I was so engrossed in the history book I was reading that I didn’t hear her because I’d tuned out the noise of the study hall where the other kids were talking and I’d became absorbed in the moment.

Exercise: Practice Living in the Moment
Try this exercise. No, don’t try it. Do it. Do it every time you start thinking about the past or the future. When you realize that you are thinking or most especially worrying about something in the past or find yourself waiting for things to get better in the future, do the following:

1. Put your hand up in front of you, palm outward like a policeman stopping traffic and in a loud voice say, “Stop!” (If you’re not alone, just think, “Stop!”)

2. Ask yourself, “What am I doing right now?”

3. Then answer yourself (for example): “I am sitting at my desk. I am picking up a pen and I am now writing a note about today’s meeting to myself.” You get the idea.

4. Keep doing that until you are focused solely on what you are doing in that moment.

One of the most wonderful benefits of living in the now moment is that you begin to feel happy in the present moment. Go ahead and do this now and let us know how this works for you by leaving a comment below.