Be present. Be. Here. Now. It is the only reality that you can realistically control.

The amount of time we spend creating stories in our minds about the things that have happened or the things that are yet to happen is significant; almost none of it is real so it makes more sense to focus on being present.

I have come to realise a significant thing; through my own experience, through people I speak to, and through a lot of stuff I have read (or listen too); that the belief that we can control anything other than what we’re doing right now is an illusion. A story we tell ourselves.

Think about this: in our minds we tell ourselves stories about the past and the possible future and, in reality, our adaption of the past is rarely what actually happened because the brain has evolved to generally only remember parts of what happened rather than all of it and we also have a natural bias towards negative thinking. And, well, the future is definitely not written, no one has a crystal ball - no matter how convincing Mystic Meg was in the past!

This doesn’t mean we can’t have goals, it doesn’t mean that we can’t realise them, however it is important to recognise that the realisation of these goals is ultimately delivered by how we are moment to moment. How present we are. This is tough with all the distractions of the tech we have around us; but pulling ourselves back to the here and now is well worth it. It engages us. Engages the mind.

I have written a few posts about fulfilment being achieved in the now; and therefore the achievement of our long terms goals being an accumulation of what we do right now plus, plus, etc. I have learned this through mindful mediation - a simple but powerful thing.

The man quoted in the above text is famous in this topic. He wrote a book called ‘The Power of Now’. It is a very good book to read or listen to.

Be. Here. Now.