What is Living In The Moment became a very popular question due to the boom for mindfulness and the book The Power Of Now written by Eckhart Tolle.
Both of these terms – mindfulness and The Power Of Now – in their essence mean the same and they can change your life forever.
What is Living In The Moment
Being present in the moment means to awaken from your ego, to become an observer of your own thinking mind and to enjoy simply being present in the moment and feeling the pleasant bliss and inner peace that goes with the state of the deep presence.
It may sound as a something weird for you if you hear this for the first time. You may think that being present is something boring or unnecessary when you have so many things to think about now and so many problems to solve… And now guess – who is telling you this?
It is your inner dialogue that goes on and on and never ends. What does it tell you know?
The Awakening
Did you already notice that sometimes this voice in your head is telling you things that you don’t want or you don’t identify with, but still – it is talking and you don’t know how to stop it.
Sometimes when you don’t want to think about something, your mind is making you think about it even more. It just does not shut up at all.
Let me ask you a question now.
If you are already aware that the voice is talking then who is the one that is aware?
What is the awareness behind your thinking mind?
If you are listening to yourself then who is the one listening?
This is the moment of awakening.
To be present and really living in the moment you will need a few more steps but this is the first and a very important one. You are waking up. You can see that you are not your mind. So far you were identifying with your mind probably throughout your whole life. But the truth is that you are not your mind. There is more. There is a vast space beyond the mind that you are now aware of. You are not your ego, you are something far greater than that.
The Life Beyond
Now your life can basically start from new. You will see many things from a greater perspective. You will see the bigger picture.
You will possibly need to read more articles, read some book on the topic or watch a couple of videos to understand better what have really happened to you. But it did happen and you already know that.
The best book that I have encountered so far, and it is possibly the ‘bible’ of this topic is The Power Of Now written by Eckhart Tolle. You can read my The Power Of Now book summary to have an idea what the book is about.
I strongly encourage you to read the book.
You can find a free pdf here. You can also find this book in online stores or in most of the bookstores. It is a No.1 New York Times Bestseller and was translated in more than 30 languages. If you haven’t heard about it yet, then the time is NOW for you to read it.
Living In The Moment
When you will experience awakening and you will understand what have happened to you then you will basically receive a new life.
You will not only feel free from your mind boundaries, you will also feel an inner peace and freedom from your mind.
You will see that every moment can bring you a simple joy of being.
You will understand that the clock time is an illusion. In essence time does not exist. It is only a human concept that makes our daily lives more simple.
You will understand that the present moment is all that you have. Every moment will be an enjoyable experience.
You will start to see that the journey is the destination.
The mental suffering that you have felt before won’t be even a bad memory – you will no longer let your mind to take you for too long journeys into the past or the future, you will know that it is a false reality.
The moment will overtake you. You will see that everything around you suddenly will become more alive. The colors will become brighter and you will be more willing to sit in silence and observe nature around you than to do any other activities that just keep your mind busy.
How To Live In The Moment
All the above sound great doesn’t it?
There is one problem though. How to get to that state.
When you will awaken it is just the first step. You will possibly feel the glimpses of the real presence.
You will feel that bliss for a brief moments. You will be able to observe your own mind for a moment. You will see that it is not you. You will see that you are the awareness behind your mind.
The problem that you may encounter is to stay present for a longer while and to not let your thinking mind take you away.
You have to practice.
You have to practice to live in the moment and to stay present. It is not so easy and won’t come to you just by itself as your mind is a very noisy machine.
It produces a constant noise. It hardly ever stops. To get away from a stream of thoughts you have to practice being present. Otherwise your mind will take you away and you will lose the connection with the present moment.
How To Be Present
The books about mindfulness and awakening don’t always give you the precise tools or guide on how to actually be present.
Usually you have to go through the books and find a solution for yourself on how to do that.
Knowing that, we have put together a guide on how to be present in the moment. There’s another article on this website – Practicing The Power Of The Now where you can read about this in more details.
Below is a short guide on entering the sate of presence – accessing the NOW.
You should find a portal within yourself that will allow you to easily be present. This might be:
- Feel your hands
- Feel your whole body
- Focus on your breath
- Accept the present moment fully as it is
- Look for silence around you, silence among the sounds
- Wait for your next thought to appear – observe your mind
Regardless of the gateway to the presence that you will choose (I encourage you to try them all for some time and then decide which one works best for you) the goal is one – to make your mind stop for a moment and let yourself be in the present moment.
We have created the video below to explain the gateways in a simple way and make it easy for you to share with your friends what does it mean to live in the moment.
You can find on this website two tools that may help you be in the present moment, both of them are based on a daily practice. Don’t worry – this might be the most pleasant practice you have ever done.
First one is a card game – it is a paid product, you can find it here: Mindfulness Game.
Second one is a completely FREE online game that we have created for the people who already know what mindfulness and The Power Of Now is but they struggle to stay present.
It is a great tool for an everyday practice – THE OBSERVER.
Good luck and stay present 🙂
The Power of Now is a theory that all people should follow for well-being, happy mood and consequently health. Living in the moment is “seize the day”, as ancient Greeks said. This is how you discover your inner self and your ego and enjoy life more beautifully. Your exercises are very helpful and appealing. I will share your very optimistic article.
Thank you for the comment and sharing this blog post. I’m always happy to see like minded people stopping by and sharing their thoughts, experiences. I’m happy that revolution in consciousness that the book author is mentioning in his publications is already a fact. There are more and more awakened humans.
Wow! This seems to me like a feeling of ecstasy that if can be attained would give an individual a sense of calm and joy in life. Though I have read a lot of books concerning all these but none has ever given me the right way to go about it. I will definitely give in to trying all these tips out. The power of living in the moment is a dream I would love to achieve. Being able to forget every other things and maintaining the peace of being in the moment. Wow!
Hi Tracy, I’m happy that you have found this article and that it got you inspired. The great thing about living in the moment is that you can do it only here and now, you can’t find it in the future, it is available for you here and now.
Thank you for another great article about living in the moment. I think living in the moment is a way to be present because each moment contains a lot of information and so when we slow down we can actually experience and the process that information. That makes us more responsive to what is actually happening and then we can make healthier decisions.
Sometimes I think living in the moment is like one of those movies where they put time on slow motion but the character is still moving at their usual speed. I think you described it the best though. I am not an expert on the subject. Thanks! And I really like your concept of the now watches.
Thank you for the warm words. The Now watches are getting a very positive feedback and it makes me happy as well. From what you are saying it seems that you have some idea bout the topic. I have another article on this website, maybe it will explain you the topic better, here it is: What is The Power Of Now.
Also I simply recommend you reading The Power Of Now, maybe the introduction to this book will inspire you, you can find it here
I’ve been living in the moment for the past 3 months and it is hands down the best thing I ever did. Forget worrying about the past, forget worrying about the future. Just LIVE IN THE MOMENT because that’s all that matters right now. The future isn’t here yet so why spend all your day worrying and stressing about something that hasn’t even come yet. Worry about it when it comes, but for now, enjoy being alive and feeling everything that’s going on in the moment. This is a game changer.
100 % agreed. The future comes as this moment as the present moment is all there is. Just do your best in this moment and do it constantly. The key is to rest from your noisy mind to observe it from a perspective, This gives you inner peace and freedom of living the now.
Hi, Great post and you have some fantastic photos too! I liken “being in the moment” to being in the “flow state”. This is when you are fully immersed in what you are doing and it is effortless. I usually get this when I’m snowboarding or mountain biking, but it can happen while at work too. You need some trigger points to get in to the flow state, which takes practice too.
Hi Tom, I agree with you about the flow, I’m always in that state when I’m writing posts on this website. The words just flow. It’s a great thing to experience. I do sports as well and I also agree that then you just stay focused on the moment and it is a real state of presence as well.
I will definitely share this post because I enjoyed everything written here. I have downloaded the free pddf of living in the now because I see that this process is something that can lead me to a better life and escape me from the constant depression I face true to challenges. It is true that I can hear myself sometimes but then the next question is thought provoking. Thanks for inspiring me!
H Henderson, I’m happy that you have downloaded the book, if you didn’t read it yet I’m sure you will love it. I can honestly say that it’s the best cure for all sorts of depression. Depression is a state of mind. Here you are going beyond the mind. Good luck, I’m sure you are o the right path just make sure to start it NOW
This reminds me of my favorite poem by Robert Hastings – The Station. It is about the ride along the countryside on a train going to a final destination. We think the reason we are on the train is to “get somewhere”. But every time we get “there”, we find there is somewhere else we need to go (something else to achieve). Then finally, we realize, life is not about the destination – the graduation, the wedding, the birth of a child, the promotion; but rather the journey. It’s the scenery (life) that happens along the trip that is what really matters and provides the joy. Each moment, the NOW is what matters. Quit thinking that after you get A, or accomplish B, or receive C, you will have arrived. Quit waiting on A, B, C, and just enjoy your NOW.
As my favorite book, the Bible, puts it, in Psalm 118:24: “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
Thank you Monica for the Bible quote. I think it gets to the point. And I fully agree on your example. The journey is the destination. You will never get to the future as the future never comes, it comes as this moment. Missing out on being in the now is missing out on living.