DAILY SLICES OF LIFE - Living in the Present

   “If you worry about what might be, and wonder

    what might have been, you will ignore what is.”

         This very insightful and highly appropriate statement by an Unknown Author speaks clearly and precisely to a state of mind that seems to have become the dominant thinking in the current society. We are spending so much of our lives looking back at events in the past, and in trying to predict the future, that we fail to make full use of all the opportunities available all around us in the present. Even more than this, we tend, for the same reason, to make matters worse by never fully paying attention to all the thoughts, the feelings and the emotions that are occurring in the present. Unfortunately, by so doing, most of us have cheated ourselves of all the beauty and the pure satisfaction of living in the present.

         The “Present” is not something that exists by chance, and is most certainly, not something that can be readily ignored. All of our life’s experiences up to this moment, have combined together to bring us to this point. Every single encounter that took place, every challenge we faced, every failure we suffered, and every success we enjoyed, have all conspired to make us the persons that we are in this moment of time. To try to live in any way other time than in the present, serves only to fool us into believing that it was possible to do so, and then rob us of the priceless joys that are in fact all around us. This undoubtedly is one of man’s most serious failings, and the one with the greatest consequences. 

            Life itself, as experienced by the individual, takes place only in the present. It may include past experiences, but is not of the past. While the future has not yet arrived, and therefore cannot be included in the present. Whenever, for whatever reason, we choose to ignore the present, we fail to acknowledge that we can only truly live in the present alone, and that anything else we do is merely living in an illusion. The past is already gone and any amount of effort, resolve or regret will not change the outcomes or the mistakes. And the future is at this point just a concept, and at best a hoped-for prediction, that may or may not become a reality. In effect, the future is merely a shadow that does not exist, except in the mind of the individual, and has no direct influence whatsoever on the outcome in the present. 

It is only by living in the present that we are aware of all the thoughts, the feelings and the emotions as they appear, and feel their effects as they occur; and it is only when this is done can we truly begin to understand ourselves, and our purpose in life. By standing in the glare of the present we are able to see more, think clearer, and act more decisively and in so doing avoid the anxieties and the stresses of having to deal with events beyond our control.  Even more vital, by acting in the present, we have the opportunity to change and to influence the outcomes as they are happening, and increase our chances for our success and satisfaction, and thus ensure a better quality of living. 

This advice is neither new nor is it original. Man has recognized its truth in principle, and has been attempting to live by its dictum with variable success at best, for as long as he has existed on this earth. As the following quotation contained in the Sanskrit, the Holy Book of ancient India written more than 3500 years ago so clearly confirms:

“Each today well lived, makes yesterday a dream of happiness and each tomorrow a vision of hope. Look therefore to this one day for it, and it alone is life.”

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