Live in the Present: Your Heart Is Beating Right Now
Thinking about the future can make you forget about what’s happening right now. It’s up to you whether you heed the famous quote by John Lennon that says “life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” In other words, you choose whether to live in the present.
Making plans is good, having goals is necessary, and having a plan for the future is fundamental for growth and advancement. But you also can’t forget that your heart is beating right now. Don’t neglect today, the present moment.
“If you really want to be happy, don’t give into the temptation of comparing this moment with other moments from the past, which you didn’t know how to enjoy because you were comparing them with moments that were yet to come.”
Don’t dwell on tomorrow when you’re only guaranteed today
The present moment is what shapes the future. The decisions you make now, the things you experience today, will become the past when the future becomes the present. But who knows what will happen tomorrow?
Love right now, live right now, be grateful right now, take care of yourself right now, because later it might be too late. Maybe tomorrow will never come. As the wise J. K. Rowling once said, “it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
“Don’t waste time crying about the past or the future. Live every minute of every hour. Joy is like a flower that can get drenched by the rain and de-petaled by the wind.”
-Edmond de Goncourt-
Cherish your loved ones
Your loved ones are always there. For precisely that reason, many of us often forget how important and necessary they are and that we could lose them someday, in any meaning of the word. Don’t forget that they love you, and that they could also lose you.
Don’t forget to cherish your loved ones, to tell them you love them, to consciously dedicate some time to them, to kiss them, to remind them how much they mean to you, to give them a sincere smile. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Talk, listen, touch, observe.
“When you don’t talk, there are a ton of things that are left unsaid.”
-Catalina Gilbert-
Stop taking everything so seriously
Every day there are problems to manage and challenges to face. But they’re not all equally important. If we remain motionless, we let ourselves get absorbed by all of them in our eagerness for the perfect life, a life completely under control.
What does this really achieve? It’s nothing but a waste of time. If you value everything based on the same scale, you’ll stop paying enough attention to what’s really important. If you simplify certain things and stop taking them so seriously, you’ll be able to dedicate enough time to what’s really important and worthwhile.
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
Prioritize your health
Health is a gift that isn’t valued enough until it’s lost. But you’ll only be able to enjoy the time you have left if you’re healthy enough. Everything you do today influences your health tomorrow. If you neglect your body and your mind now, you’ll pay for it later.
Live today by thinking about your physical and mental health, and respect your body and soul. Be conscious of the value it has to you and those who love you. Taking care of yourself will feed your self-esteem and make you feel grateful and alive.
Live in the present and be thankful for what you have now
The hard reality is that life is too short. But the good news is that it’s still enough if you do it right. In order to do so, you have to live in the present, be grateful for what you have, enjoy right now, respect right now, and don’t waste it.
What you have now is enough to be happy. Your current self is enough if you’re able to find true value in what you already have. You can still achieve more, sure, but you won’t get anywhere if you don’t know where you are right now.