Living in the Moment–Are You Doing the Very Best That You Can Right Now?
I have just returned from Penticton, BC, where I completed a triathlon called Ironman Canada. The event consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride followed by a 26.2 mile run.
Contemplating the magnitude of these distances in the aggregate would be completely daunting and overwhelming. The only way to survive, and to experience the exhilaration of the day, is to be completely focused in the moment.
Lisa Bentley, a renowned triathlete, gave a motivational talk the day before the event. She suggested that, in each moment, we ask ourselves: “Am I doing the very best that I can right now?”
This mode of living is a virtual prescription for peace of mind. Most anxiety has as its source some past trauma, or an apprehension about the future. Similarly, depression is often the result of accumulated regret, or pessimism regarding the future.
Living in the moment is contingent on continuous presence and awareness. If you find your mind wandering off into the past or the future, gently refocus your attention on the “now.”
Living fully in each moment, without either clinging to the past, or attempting to control the future, is utterly liberating. You become optimally open and receptive to the love, beauty and perfection inherent in every moment.
As T.S. Eliot wrote, at the conclusion of his poem, Burnt Norton:
Sudden in a shaft of sunlight
Even while the dust moves
There rises the hidden laughter
Of children in the foliage
Quick now, here, now, always—
Ridiculous the waste sad time
Stretching before and after
If you would like assistance with living in the moment, please review my website and give me a call.
