Do you ever feel like you are delicately balancing on one foot the activities you are currently engaged in and those plans you are making in your head for the future? Is it hard to concentrate on what you are doing now because your focus keeps getting sucked into tomorrow? When this happens life starts to pass by very quickly, like a time warp on super speed, and the gift of today is gone before you even had a chance to appreciate it. Life starts to feel like a race. The only problem is the faster you go the more you lose your innate happiness.

Spiritual wisdom tells us ‘the now’ is where happiness is found and fulfillment occurs. One area of my life I’m personally working on is living in the present moment. My understanding is that living in the now is something practiced more in the East, but not as prevalent in Western society.

Here in the West we are busy chasing our future dreams, and moving onto the next big thing, that we forget to enjoy the moment at hand. We focus on accomplishments instead of the present moment. Thinking too much about achieving and acquiring, and what’s next actually makes me anxious, and sometimes unhappy. Focusing on the future puts our attention on what we don’t yet have, instead of gratitude for what we do have. Gratitude is the key to joy and fulfillment.

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.”  ~Meister Eckhart

Putting our focus on what we are doing in this very moment in time, giving it our full attention and love is the best way to slow down and enjoy life. It enables us to make the most of our gift of time here on earth.

What I know to be true is that when I am rushing, I’m never really enjoying what I am doing. In a state of hurry our mind is constantly moving onto what’s next, instead of taking time to receive joy in the current moment. I want to enjoy my life to the fullest, so I really want to give my complete attention to the moment I am in. The time I have with my young children is already fleeting, and I don’t want to set it to super speed by focusing on tomorrow instead of today.

Now is the most beautiful moment we have.

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Share your wisdom with me in the comments below – How do you practice gratitude in your life? What helps keep you in the present moment? What is beautiful about right now?

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