How To Start Living In The Present Moment?

The present moment is also referred to as the zero-point field, the inner still point, or resting in your center. The present moment is what everybody is ultimately looking for, but aren’t aware of that longing. Instead we seek to accomplish goals after goals to hopefully someday arrive at this sweet spot. But this sweet spot is only a temporary feeling. It doesn’t last long. However, the present moment lasts forever!

Time is truly an illusion. How we structure our days according to time is a man-made construct. We have managed to live by something that doesn’t exist. The past, present and future are all happening simultaneously. We don’t even have ‘past’ lives, we have parallel lives. It’s still existing on some level ‘outside’ of what we call ‘time’, that we are not perceiving. We only project things in our past and in our future with our mind and so we think that there is a past and a future but there really is only ‘the now’.

In other words, the past is in the present, the present is in the present and the future is in the present.

What makes it so difficult to live in the present moment?

Living in the present moment isn’t as easy as it sounds because of this:

When we are in survival mode and when we are dissociated from ourselves and our environment, it’s not possible to live in the present moment.
When we have PTST (which almost every one of us has to some degree) we can’t truly feel and live in the present moment.
When we do not allow ourselves to feel our emotions and bodily sensations, then we can never be truly present with ourselves. Our emotions are in the present moment!
When we are not present with and IN our bodies, we can’t live in the present moment.
When we don’t live from the heart, we can’t be in the present moment. The present moment can be found in the heart.

AND we can’t live in the present moment when we are literally to busy and all caught up in our mind every day.

Many people hear this concept of living in the present moment and may think they live in the present moment. But they don’t know what is means to truly live in the present moment every day and every second. It’s actually really hard to attain a state of being to be fully present the entire time. It takes practice!

You can definitely attain being present with yourself and daily tasks, but it does take a whole lot of awareness in order to feel this state of being every day. Some days you may actually feel the present moment and somedays you don’t…

Life can ask to much at times and when we are too busy to pay attention to what we are doing and our environment, then it’s getting really difficult to actually live in the present.

How to start living in the present moment?

Orient to yourself and your environment.

In order to truly live in the present moment, we need to daily orient to ourselves and our environment. When this is hard for us to do then we also need to release the trauma/survival stress that comes up when we orient to ourselves and our environment. This is also where shadow work and nervous system regulation comes into the picture.

Trauma makes it so that we dissociate from the present moment and we have to release that what makes us not want to be in our bodies or in our environment. For some this is a taller task than others. If you notice that you can’t fully be in your body then the sensations and emotions are too overwhelming to deal with. This means there is unresolved ‘baggage’ present in your system that we need to release. In order to live in the present moment, we have to practice being IN our own bodies and our environment and all the sensations and emotions that arise with it.

Don’t make yourself wrong for where you are.

When you are thinking thoughts about your life that says, where I am is wrong or where I am isn’t good enough or it shouldn’t be this way, it creates a whole lot of internal suffering. These thoughts push us into survival energy and we are subconsciously and mentally trying to get out of our situation. This means we are all caught up in our head and not our heart!

Instead don’t judge where you are. We naturally judge but start practicing non-judgement. Start reframingyour beliefs about where you are and why you actually should be where you are and that where you are is OK. Even if you don’t like your life currently. Be aware to not bypass either…just acknowledge where you are but don’t judge it as right or wrong.

Stop trying to figure it out and start trusting.

When we are trying to figure our lives out, creating a plan in our mind, doing all these things to get it ‘right’ we are not trusting ourselves. Know that there is nothing to figure out. You can’t do life wrong. There is truly nothing to go or work towards, the present moment is all there is. Start looking at life as a process instead of an end-goal. Learn to enjoy the little things in between the bigger things.

Perhaps remind yourself of these words when you don’t feel present: ‘you don’t have to figure it all out now’. If you do tend to want to figure it all out now, then you are bringing the future towards your present. You start to feel your future in ‘the now’ and that can become very overwhelming! There is a time and place to do this, but if you want to practice staying present you don’t want to tune out of the present moment by thinking about the future (or the past).

Stop resisting what IS, and allow things to BE.

All stress comes from resisting what IS. When we don’t like our lives and don’t like how we feel it’s easy to start feeling resistance. When we are in resistance to our lives we are also in resistance to the present moment. Instead you want to practice releasing resistance by allowing what is to BE. Any experience is valid and needs to be acknowledged whether we like how it IS or not, it is valid. When we can allow things to BE, then we can allow the present moment into our experience.

Focus on your breath and always come back to the breath.

And another common thing you may hear about is the breath! The breath is incredibly important for many reasons and one of those reasons is for being present to the moment. When you truly focus on your breath you cannot NOT be in the present moment. You may get distracted by your mind while focusing on your breath and that is normal. When you notice you get distracted by your thoughts and it tunes you out of the present moment then you are not focused enough and you want to try again. Come back to the breath again and again as often as needed in order to come back to the present moment.

Bonus practice

Doing one task at a time (slow living) will help you to live more in the present as well. And tuning into all of your senses: sight, taste, touch and sound will also help you get back into the present moment. Know your senses are there for you and you can tune into your senses anytime.

Final note: You can’t force yourself into the present moment. When you do try to force it, you are trying to get into the present moment from your mind and you can never access the present moment from a mental approach. Remember the present moment can be found in the heart.

Yesterday is in the past.

Tomorrow is in the future.

And today is a gift, that’s why they call it the ‘present’.

Until next time.

With Love, Naomi

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