Chapter 2 - The Importance of Living in the Present Moment

“The point of power is always in the present moment.” - Louise Hay

The present moment refers to the moment that you are living right now. It is not the past and it is not the future. It is now.

You can’t change the past and you can’t control the future. You can however make the most of the present by staying consciously aware of the life that is yours to live in each moment.

According to author Eckhart Tolle, the present moment is all you really have. He writes “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.”

Unfortunately, most of us have a hard time appreciating the present because our “monkey minds,” as Buddhists call them, jump from thought to thought like monkeys swinging from tree to tree. If we’re not contemplating regrets of the past, we’re worrying about the future.

Living in the present moment means living in acceptance

When you live in the present moment you live in acceptance. You accept life as it is right now, rather than how you wish it was. Being mindful allows you to live in the forgiveness of what you did or didn’t do and it enables you to have peace, knowing that everything in your future will happen as it should. 

Living in acceptance is also the key to alleviating mental stress. Stress can impact your health in many negative ways and it can also cloud your ability to make good decisions.

When you accept things as they are without judgment, you free yourself from the cycle of reasoning, resentment, anger, guilt and worry. When you free your mind from the mental stress these kinds of thoughts cause, you also free your body from the toxicity that these emotions produce. 

Embrace your power to create

When you allow your thoughts to be overtaken by the past or future, you relinquish your personal power. Personal power is the ability to choose what you think about and what you do. If your head is always stuck in the past or future, you are not exercising your power to create the kind of result you want in the present.

Contemplating past regrets or future worries only solidifies your fears and inadequacies. The subconscious mind loves images and creates on the basis of the pictures you give it. It does not differentiate between images and real situations.

For example, if in the present moment you use your thought power to create images of yourself failing a test, then chances are you will fail the test. Not because you don’t have the knowledge to pass the test, rather it’s because your subconscious mind spent countless days prior to the test solidifying failure through the images you gave it.

The present is the only moment you have to create change. If you want to change your life, you can only do that in the present moment by the thoughts you choose to think. When you consciously choose thoughts that can benefit you right now, you are using your personal power to create something good in every moment.