Mark Twain once said, “I have known a great many troubles. But most of them never happened.”
Is your thought life consumed by future events, ones that might not even happen? It’s important to remind ourselves that life unfolds in the present, yet most often we let the present slip away. We forget to seize the moment, allowing our precious time to rush past, unobserved.
We live in a world full of distractions, yet one of life’s most powerful paradoxes is that our brightest future depends upon our ability to pay attention to the present.
When my daughter Cassandra was two and a half, I was busily putting away the dishes as she rambled on behind me. My thoughts were elsewhere, most likely on my never ending to-do list, or on some extended family issues, when out of the blue she yelled “Mommy, Mommy!” while tugging the back of my shirt. Exasperated, I knelt down in front of her and asked what she wanted. She held my head in her chubby little hands and said, with profound force, “Mommy! Talk in my face!”
I knew exactly what she meant. She wanted me to show up, pay attention, and be present in the moment with her.
We tend to get lost in what we’re doing, mindlessly going through the motions. This is why we can unknowingly eat a whole bag of chips, forget to add the sugar while baking, or arrive at a destination with little remembrance of the journey.
Mindfulness means consciously taking control of where we place our attention and snapping out of autopilot mode. Maintaining moment-to-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, and environment enables us to accomplish more than we might think possible.
When our minds wander, we become stuck in mechanical and conditioned ways of thinking and we often fail to notice the beauty of life. Now is a gift; slowly unwrap it and savour the present.
