“Lost yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward offered for they are gone forever.” – Horace Mann
“People don’t realize that now is all there ever is; there is no past or future except as memory or anticipation in your mind.” – Eckhart Tolle
Have you ever driven somewhere, arrived at your destination not really sure how you got there? We all have at one time or another, or maybe even more often that we would like to admit. Where were you in those moments of forgetting? You were not present, that is for sure.
The same goes for having your children tell you a story about something that happened at school that day and they ask you a question about it and you can’t answer because you did not hear anything they said. Where were you in those moments? Not present.
Are you seeing a pattern or theme? If you are not in the present moment then there are only two other options. You were either stuck in the past or somewhere in the future.
Let’s look at the past for a moment. When does it make sense to be thinking about the past? Well, recalling a story while telling another person about it seems like an appropriate time. And for sure there are moments like these in life, especially if we are telling this story to share an aspect of our lives to the person we are with.
Going down memory lane can create connection, support understanding and reveal many things about ourselves that help support our own growth. However, if we are going down memory lane to escape our present circumstances, or to rally up support of our victimhood, or replay arguments in our head then we are robbing ourselves of what the present moment has to offer.
Now let’s step into the future. This is always and forever a place and time that will always be the future. When the future arrives is becomes the now, so the future we are obsessing about, worrying about, and counting on to make us happy is always in the future. So thinking about it for anything other than making plans, or setting dates as part of our life is futile and again, robs of us the present moment including the joy, growth, opportunity, peace and love we can find there.
Take the time to see if you can catch yourself lost in the past or future and try to bring yourself back to the moment. Then try to see what the moment has to offer, and what you are missing out on.
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