It’s very common to feel emotionally boxed in and less than enthusiastic during our day to day lives. You can limit your personal growth getting too hung up on your past baggage, your childhood, and other times in your prior history where things went far less than optimal. This focus on the past keeps us anchored to what has already transpired. But you can also get caught up in a mental habit where your happiness is tied to what you hope the future becomes. Everything is about being happy at some point in the future when certain things are accomplished or obtained. These extremes between the past and future prevent us from being happy when it counts the most and that is in the present.
“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.” – Alice Morse Earle
I’m one of the fortunate people that don’t travel with too much baggage from my past. I just have an easier time moving forward than most. For that, I am grateful because I know plenty of people that just can’t get over things that happened to them in their past. I’m not talking about what happened yesterday, the day before or even last year. I’m talking about things that happened to them decades ago, or when they were children. I would imagine that more therapy sessions with professionals are spent on childhoods than any other period in people’s lives.
I have a slightly different struggle where I often find myself consumed with the future. I’m a compulsive planner. I’m anal about goals and objectives. This has served me well in life but there are times where I greatly overcompensate on thinking about the future at the expense of enjoying the present. Rather than being content with where I am now and what I have accomplished, I spend incredible amounts of time figuring out what I need to do about the future and how much happier I’ll be when certain events happen or certain items are obtained. I catch myself thinking, “I’ll be happier when I get that car, or have a certain amount of money in a financial account, or when I complete a certain task.”
As I age, I’m realizing the flaw in pinning too much of my happiness on the future. There comes a time when it slowly starts to creep in on you that at some point, no matter how well you take care of yourself and how “youthful” you keep yourself and feel, the end is closer than you want it to be. That can make me feel sad if I think about it in a certain way but it can also make me feel happier because it makes me more grateful for what I have right now in my life. I certainly have a lot to appreciate and be grateful for.
Mindfulness is the practice of purposely focusing on the present moment. It’s being in the “here and now” rather than being consumed with what happened in the past or what may happen in the future. For some, being mindful requires specific meditations or rituals to focus your thoughts and attention on clarity. For others, it can may require physical triggers like breathing and relaxing your muscles.
Even though it can be different for each person, mindfulness comes with many benefits. Mindfulness can impact our physical health just as much as it can impact our mental and emotional health. Mindfulness has been clinically shown to;
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Relieve stress and anxiety
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Lower blood pressure
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Improve heart health
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Reduce pain
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Improve sleep
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Improve gastrointestinal issues
Maybe you are like I was a few years back when I thought mindfulness and meditation was all just “woo-woo” stuff for kooks and quacks. Boy was I filled with limiting beliefs! I’m so grateful that I found my way and learned to focus on the present.
I don’t make this practice any more complicated than it should be for myself. I find that if I just call a “time-out” during my day and observe some of the wonders of the universe around me, my mood, mental wellbeing, and physical demeanor changes for the better. Some of the things that work for me and might work for you would include;
- Appreciate something incredible in nature. It could be a tree, a flower, a mountain, the stars, the fresh air, ocean water. Nature is filled with amazing joys.
- Be grateful for things in my life. I may even write these out or share them with others. I am grateful for people, food, material items, the time I have on earth, and all the resources that are available to us (like technology for example.) Experiment for 1 week by sending your spouse or best friend 3 things that you are grateful for about them. Send 3 new things each day.
- Be grateful and appreciate my health.
- Stop and just breathe and clear my mind. Sometimes purposely thinking of “nothing” allows me to reboot my brain and move past the noise in life.
- Relax all my muscles. Just learn to let go. It helps if I am lying down in bed or in a comfortable chair. But it’s only when I intentionally “let go and relax all of my muscles” that I realize how tense and flexed certain parts of my body were (including muscles in my face).
It’s important to remind ourselves that we are supposed to be living happy lives. Life is not supposed to be all about work, stress, baggage, worrying about what might happen tomorrow. Living in the present is an important aspect of life that shouldn’t be ignored. This practice allows us to pursue personal excellence in whatever we do.
Mindfulness is an important component and principle of happiness. The more effective you become in practicing it, the happier you will become. Make mindfulness and important process and habit in your day. Do it consistently for optimum results. Even if you start with something very small, it’s important that you just start so that you could build upon the practice and habit. Look around you and find something that you are grateful for in your life right now.
Mindfulness will assist you in rebelling against the Forces of Evil. It’s hard to be happy when you are consumed with what the government is or isn’t doing, what corporations want you to buy or believe, what the media is trying to distract you with to capture your attention or what big pharma wants to sell you in pill form to solve all of your health issues (many of which are caused by not being mindful!)
You are your greatest investment. It’s not a stock, a bond, or some bitcoin on a hard drive. Always have the courage to invest in yourself so that you can continuously transform your life and experience personal growth.
“We are awakened to the profound realization that the true path to liberation is to let go of everything.” – Jack Kornfield
What is one small way that you can become more mindful and grateful for the present? Share your answer on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.