When folks remind us to live in the moment, they’re actually offering up sound advice. Yes, we hear it a lot, and it’s tempting to blow it off as just another platitude. But here’s why it is sound advice: When we focus on what is happening right now, we are not worrying about the future or the past.
Those of us who suffer from anxiety or depression (or both) are often ruminating about some past detail or obsessing over an unknown future event. We are either living in the past or living in the future. We are, however, not present in the here and now. So we’re not living our life!
When we take time to meditate or practice yoga, we’re training our minds to focus on what’s happening now. Focusing on yoga poses, or on our breath, forces us to let go of the past and not worry about tomorrow. Additionally, if we focus on a task we are doing more intently, such as walking to the car or folding the laundry, we are training our mind to focus on what is going on in the moment. This is otherwise known as mindfulness.
So as we attend to our tasks more mindfully and practice grounding through meditation or yoga, we stop thinking about the past and the future and our minds calm down. Space opens up enabling us to concentrate on tasks more, relax a bit, and appreciate the little things that we often take for granted while we obsess about the past or the future.
Here’s to living in the now.
Photo by Prasanth Inturi from Pexels
Disclaimer: All articles written on Microyogi are opinions and not meant to serve as any kind of instruction for how to move your body. I am merely writing as a means of trying to find my own answers. I am not a medical expert.
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