At times, I watch my mind looking toward the future, wondering what will happen or when certain things will happen, wondering what my future will look like, imagining, envisioning, feeling into a future I can sense yet not see.
I think about what I want and how I’d like to feel, how I want my life to look and how I want it to feel.
I like to envision, to imagine, to daydream.
But I always come back to myself—here, now.
At times, I’ll catch myself thinking things will be better when…when something happens or I achieve something or have something or experience something. But this when is always…in the future, inherently separated from where I am now.
But I’m here, now, in this moment, and there is so much to be grateful for, so much to appreciate.
There are so many beautiful things in life right now, so many opportunities, so much good.
I’m here, now, in this moment. In this space and this time. Breathing this air. I have these moments and minutes and hours. I have this single heartbeat and then the next.
There is beauty here, now, in this moment.
I remind myself of this, whenever my mind starts to wander or feel restless, when it goes toward thinking about how something could be better “if only” or “when.”
I remind myself to come back to where I am now, to all of the beautiful things I have in my life right now.
Here are 10 quotes on the power and beauty of the present moment:
1. “Life is available only in the present moment.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
2. “Hurrying and delaying are alike ways of trying to resist the present.” ~ Alan Watts
3. “The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
4. “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
5. “Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
6. “Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.” ~ Marianne Williamson
7. “To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.” ~ Alan Watts
8. “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
9. “The art of living…is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.” ~ Alan Watts
10. “Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
~
AUTHOR: LISA ERICKSON
IMAGE: ALEXEY DEMIDOV/PEXELS
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