How many times have you stopped today to just be present?

Maybe you don’t even know what being present means or feels like? Or maybe you don’t even know the value of being present? Well, if you desire more peace, clarity, love, hope and perspective in life, then taking time to be present is well worth it. I promise!

We all have the same 24 hours in a day and it’s up to us to choose how we spend it. Sure, there are all things we have to do each day (like produce income, eat, sleep, look after loved ones, etc.), but we still own the other parts of the day. And what you do with those other parts of the day can dramatically improve you life. So let’s start with being present.

Being present is…

  • Giving yourself a break from thinking about what’s happening next, planning, problem solving and worrying
  • Creating capacity in your mind (because you’re not filling it with worry, planning, problem solving, etc.) to get perspective on what is going on around you…right now. I like to call it, being an Observer of your life instead always being the Participant of your life.
  • Letting the now (where opportunity lives) guide you instead of the “what if” (where a lot of fear lives)

How to be present

  • From a physical perspective, you might take some time to be quiet (even a few minutes helps). Or maybe you go for a walk or place yourself in a soothing environment (whatever that looks like for you). It’s best that you pause any outside input like phones, TV, people talking, etc. Some people like to close their eyes, some people like to breathe, some people like to just be still. Do what ever works for you.
  • From a mental perspective, you give yourself permission to just think about what is going on around you…right now. Notice how you’re physically feeling and how you’re emotionally feeling. And if you can, don’t judge it, just observe it.
  • You can be present anywhere. On a break at school. In your office at work. While kids are napping. In your car. It’s more important to find moments to be present then it is to find the perfect place or scenario to be present.
  • Being present is a judgement free zone. The main goal of being present is to observe your thoughts and how you’re feeling without passing judgement on yourself. What a wonderful place to be, right?

In your moments of being present, observe how you’re feeling (anxious, happy, sad, mad, etc.). You can even go one step further and ask yourself why you might be feeling this way. Often times you will find you have unsettling emotions because you’re too busy living in the future and running “what if” scenarios instead of seeing the power of good things happening to you right now. Being present allows you to see all of the good things in your life. It’s the awareness of the good in your life now that helps produce hope for good the things in your future. And if we have hope, we can do just about anything!

Being present might sound like too simple of an exercise to produce such a powerful outcome of healthy perspective and truth.

But who said everything in life has to be hard?