The Ever Present, Present

"Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present."

The above quote is attributed to Bill Keane, the cartoonist. As I read those words this morning, I got to thinking about how I am always thought fretting about more. You know regretting or ruminating about the past, or anxiously contemplating the future. When in actuality I have a gift, the present with me right in the moment.

As someone who grew up in a state of worry, I am constantly seeking peace. For much of my adult life I believed that if I could just be stable enough, make enough money, and plan ahead, then I wouldn't have to go through a ton of adversity. My life would be peaceful.

But that isn't reality, is it? And treating the present as the present it is requires one to lean into discomfort and accept what is, in the moment.

Something I had to learn (and am still working on) is to seek discomfort, a theme I touched on in my last post. If I can train my mindset to seek out discomfort while also dwelling in the present, then my life will be being lived with the graitude that I so long for it to be lived with. You know, without all the extra thought baggage.

Because if you are allowing your thoughts about it all to sabotage your vibe in the present, then you most definitely aren't treating the gift that is your life as the present it is.

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Or something like that.

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Most of what we fret about just isn't so or won't come to pass. One thing that I have implented to help me not get so hung up in rumination-land is I have trained myself to identify when I am not being present and then I get up and do something. Nothing breaks you out of a past or future rumination session like a good ol' but of body movement.

And by movement I mean anything from taking a walk, to baking something, to pulling weeds, to learning a Spanish lesson. You know, things that require you to be present in the present.

Our minds are glorious, marvelous things. They are also really good at sabotaging us as we are capable of thinking about how we feel about things. Even things that don't exist.

And with that in mind I think it's so important to remember that we should focus on where we are at in the exact moment of our existence. I mean, it's the present after all. 😉

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And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's always present iPhone, the header and footer images were made in Canva.