One major source of mental and physical tension for people is ruminating about the past and time-traveling to an imagined future to work it all out before it happens. This is often called living in the past or living in the future.

The Universal remedy is to be present. Live now. Be here now. Smell the roses. Slow down and just be.

But what does that mean? What is The Now?

It's talked about a lot as if it's a tangible thing. Or a place to get to. Like Los Angeles.

There are a few ways people (including myself) conceptualize the idea of living now or living present.

Forward through time:

The first idea is as if the past is somehow pushing you forward through time or the future is pulling you forward through time. This concept is inherently not going to result in being present or relaxing into the present moment. It's a forced hanging-on feeling or an always catching up feeling of time always getting away from us. Hurry up so I can be present. I used to see life this way and it's exhausting to always need to manage a push/pull through time. A battle along the stream of time.

Train of Moments:

The second one is viewing the present moment as a series of discreet moments through time linked together sequentially. Like a train of box cars relentlessly rolling along and you are running to catch up trying to get the timing just right to climb aboard. This is a very common view of life. We might say live in the moment. Savour the moment. As if the moment is quickly going away. The fleeting moment. Life is short grab the moment. Our moment-to-moment life. This is also inherently tension-making because you're needing to hurry up to get in the moment. "Oh darn, I just missed the moment". Another version of being really busy aiming to just be.

Always Now:

It occurs to me that the moment never actually goes anywhere. It's always now. It's always the present moment. Being in the present or living now is actually possible. Especially when the now doesn't ever go anywhere. The now doesn't travel forward in time. Our brains make up time so that we can make sense of the world. We are always in the present moment. We can't not be. We are never anywhere else.

I'm imagining if people literally disappeared when they thought of the past or worried about the future. "Where did Joan go?" "Oh, Joan? She's in the past. She'll come back." Then reappearing for a second only to wink off to the future. A whole town full of people popping in and out all over the place.

Now is eternal and we live in it. Whether we are aware of it or not. All that's needed is for us to notice and slow down enough to have a good look around.

With Love,

Sara Joy

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