Living in "Now"

There are three major blocks of time that include the future, the past and now. The future is what might happen, the past is what did happen, but "now" is our world. Focusing on the now has a lot to do with how to reduce stress and find greater enjoyment within your life. Learning this important skill takes time but is beneficial throughout your life.

The past is based on what happened before now and is subjective in nature. It rests on our interpretations and experience. As time passes our past changes, the meaning we make from it changes, and we come to understand the past in ways that were not possible before. Focusing on the past takes away from experiencing the now.

Our future is something we don't know. We can project what might happen based upon the past and present but we can't say what will happen with 100% certainty. Our brains seek to protect us by helping us be abstract in our thinking but this can also raise our stress levels when we cannot easily go back to the present.

The "now" is where we live our lives. It is the things that are happening now, at this moment, and make up "the moment". Living in the present means we are paying attention to what is happening right now and enjoying that moment as much as possible. We have temporarily forgotten about the past and future.

There are some advantages to living in the present when possible. It allows us to feel relaxed and now worry about things that happened before or what will happen in the future. We are enjoying life for life's sake and put down our worries about things we may not have any control over anyway. As soon as we start living in the present we also start taking advantage of each day.