Being In the Moment

People wonder if time travel is possible, but actually we’re doing it all the time!  When was the last time you brought your full, unencumbered awareness to the present moment?  We are always thinking about the past or the future – deferring to some occurrence that we experienced or projecting out to some hope or fear about future events.

A living presence in the moment now – that’s most natural place to be!  That’s where animals dwell, so why do human beings have such a hard time?

Our wonderful cognitive abilities enable space-time awareness.  That in itself is an ability, not a short-coming, but we entangle ourselves with our personality, relationships, wealth, attributes, and pretty much anything that we come into contact with.  That entanglement brings the duality of likes and dislikes which we then tack onto from the past, or project out to the future.  And this is a constant stream of mental chatter… always judging past events or wishing for something in the future.  Our fears, desires, need for control, and general reliance on the ego lead to this mental time travel.

Living truly, rooted in life as it manifests, that is living in the present.  Anything else by definition is not the absolute now, so why would we settle our mind anywhere else?  The reason is that we let it happen unconsciously.  That is why there is so much talk about bringing conscious awareness to one’s life.

There are many ways to be more aware, countless articles provide practical ideas.  Yoga is one recognized way to bring about this union.  From simple, introductory yoga poses to the full culmination of the 8 paths of spiritual yoga, the ultimate intent is a vibrant and constant awareness to all of the dimensions of life.

Living in the moment is not an exercise to practice once a day, it’s a fundamental state of being.  It might start with daily practices like meditation or sense awareness but the aspiration is to take yourself out of the way and allow the living presence to blossom into an exuberant state of being-ness.