Be present, more.

If you start reading philosophy, no matter where you start, you will soon come across this “be present” concept. A lot of great people of history advise living in the present.

There is a fascinating exploration of this topic in one of the chapters of the book “Happy” by Derren Brown.

I first read about it I think in the teachings of Buddha.

The arguments are that we live too much either in the past regretting things or reliving some memories or the future longing for something that we don’t currently possess. Only when we live in the present, do we live life at all.

We are often not conscious of our thoughts. Only when we sit down and meditate do we realize that we have like a million thoughts per second. We can’t make them stop. And none of them is about the present.

I have been catching myself more and more not living in the present. The first step is to catch yourself. Then slowly start bringing yourself back to the present. Here the realization is important that our thoughts are not under our control. So you must forgive yourself for wandering in your thoughts.

Slowly, but surely you begin to live more in the present and get some control over the anxiety for the future or the regrets and nostalgia for the past.

You realize that life is in the now.

(This doesn’t mean that you don’t learn from the past or don’t plan for the future.)