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But What Does “Live in the Moment” Actually Mean?

With 5 ways that FINALLY show us how (and not once do I suggest mindfulness)

By emPublished 3 years ago 8 min read
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But What Does “Live in the Moment” Actually Mean?
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

A gong chimes. A lake stills. The moon, in full, glistens overhead. Then the universe begins to whisper to you in the form of a bald man on a mountain.

Be present. Embrace the moment. Practise mindfulness. Live in the now. Forget the past, ignore the future, here is where you are. So be in it. Inhabit it. Learn to exist.

Right.

Okay.

Sure thing, Guru Honeypot Sunrise, I hear you. Mmhmm. Just one question though:

How the f*ck do I do that?

We all know that’s what we need to do

We’ve been bloody told enough. But how the heaven do we do something I already thought we were doing? By default we exist in the here and the now, so how do we do that more so?

It’s like Matt Haig wrote in The Comfort Book:

“Although there are an infinite number of meditations and online tutorials teaching us how to “inhabit the present”, we already do this without trying. We always inhabit the present. “Forever is composed of nows”, as Emily Dickinson told us. So being “in the now” is something we don’t have to work at…. But of course, when we talk about inhabiting the present we mean something else. We are talking about how to actually enjoy the present, free from worries.”

So, right, okay, I feel ya. It’s not just about existing in the moment, it’s about making the moment happier. That clears things up a little, right?

Sweet.

Solid.

Ace.

Big smiles all round.

*Smiles drop. Crickets chirp. A tumbleweed blows by.*

Uh….so….now what?

How do we make the moment a happier one?

We’ve heard all the theory, but now we’re demanding the practical advice, the implementable steps, the ways in which we can actually learn to live, and be happy, inside the moment.

So let’s have them:

1. Ask the right question

Brianna Wiest says in 101 Essays that Will Change the Way You Think, “stop asking, ‘what am I doing with my life?’ and start asking, ‘what am I doing with today?’”

So do that. Observe how you’re spending your day. Forget how it might unfold from yesterday or bleed into tomorrow — just think of it as a standalone day. The only one that exists. Your only chance for happiness. What are you going to with it?

Then once you’ve decided — do it.

2. Chapter title your day

Turn your to-do list into your plot. Turn your existence into a movie scene. You’re the main character here and today is but another pivotal moment in the showcase that is your life.

Once you wake up, knock back a breakfast or three and give today a title, then you must adhere to it. Whether it’s a theme (the sports day, the rest day, the get-stuff-done day) or a specific task (Clean That Weird Brown Stain off the Side of the Bath: a horror movie) make it the headline for the next 24 hours and then everything you do within that time-frame has to be a part of that plot.

You can’t think about tomorrow’s scene. And yesterday’s have already been filmed. The only part of the movie that matters is exactly what’s on screen right now — and that’s you, here, doing what you’re self-scripted to do.

3. Whatever it is you’re doing — do it slowly

I’m going to let Thich Nhat Hanh explain this one:

“To my mind, the idea that doing dishes is unpleasant can occur only when you aren’t doing them. Once you are standing in front of the sink with your sleeves rolled up and your hands in the warm water, it is really quite pleasant.

I enjoy taking my time with each dish, being fully aware of the dish, the water, and each movement of my hands. I know that if I hurry in order to be able to finish so I can sit down sooner and eat dessert or enjoy a cup of tea, the time of washing dishes will be unpleasant and not worth living. That would be a pity, for each minute, each second of life is a miracle. The dishes themselves and the fact that I am here washing them are miracles!

If I am incapable of washing dishes joyfully, if I want to finish them quickly so I can go and have dessert or a cup of tea, I will be equally incapable of enjoying my dessert or my tea when I finally have them. With the fork in my hand, I will be thinking about what to do next, and the texture and the flavor of the dessert, together with the pleasure of eating it, will be lost. I will be constantly dragged into the future, miss out on life altogether, and never able to live in the present moment…..

I must confess it takes me a bit longer to do the dishes, but I live fully in every moment, and I am happy. Washing the dishes is at the same time a means and an end. We do the dishes not only in order to have clean dishes, we also do the dishes just to do the dishes, to live fully in each moment while washing them, and to be truly in touch with life.”

Slow down, my friend. Drag out the process, no matter how crappy it might at first appear. Learn to notice every element of the process. Feel every sensation, think only about what it is you’re doing right here and now. It’ll take time, feel boring, suck ass a little at first. But the more you practise living daily life (our only life) slowly, thoughtfully, the more life will slow down — and extend — as a result.

4. Turn off technology.

As our phone battery depletes, so does the present moment. Honestly, I don’t know how it does that, but it does. It’s weird. It’s dangerous. And I just need you to trust me on this one.

Apparently I spent 7 hours and 43 minutes on my phone in one day last week. That’s 7 hours and 43 minutes of the rest of my life on pause. Almost a third of the present moment that I just wasn’t present for. I’m not a fan of that. It needs to stop.

So let’s stop it together.

5. Journal about your “bueno bits”

Throughout the day I make a note of what I call my “bueno bits.” (surprisingly, it’s not me just listing the various places in which I’ve left Kinder Bueno crumbs).

I write down everything. The good and the granular. A sequence of all the tiniest things that have occurred inside my day (and only today). For example, it’s now 2pm on a Wednesday and here’s what mine looks like thus far:

Made granola, fruit and yog for mine and mom’s brekkie. Watched Eastenders. Watched the cat drag her ass along the carpet (equally as dramatic). Cried at a hand-drawn card. Clenched back a fart. Sent a voice-note to a Scottish boy. Signed a tenancy agreement. Squatted. Emptied a box. Sat in the box. Put a book about ghost hunting inside the box. Put my hair in a ponytail. Frowned at my forehead. Drafted an email. Scrambled an egg. Scrambled my brain. Thought about how “housework” means tidying, but “homework” means trigonometry. Danced to Maneskin. Burped into a cup.

You see? All these atomic instances that have unfolded before it’s even late-afternoon. And being consciously aware of them — knowing that I intend to document them all at some point in the day — means I am forced to focus on the present.

Because that’s where all the little things live.

But how does this make the moment “happier”?

Ah, see, plot twist. It doesn’t. Not directly. These methods teach us appreciation, not happiness.

But it turns out, they’re one and the same.

If we:

  1. Ask the right question
  2. Title our day
  3. Slow down a little
  4. Turn off our iPhones
  5. And jot down the little things

Then we’re learning how to first notice them and then second, appreciate them. We’re tuning into life so that we can finally hear the song playing amidst the deafening noise. And the more we expose ourselves to it, the more we begin to love it.

You see, we already live here in the present moment. It’s literally the only thing we have. But you can live inside a house for years without truly exploring it’s rooms, right? These 5 steps allow us to rummage in cupboards, peek beneath floorboards, discover every corner of the moment we’re in.

And only when we know the moment can we finally turn it into a home.

I guess “living in the moment” simply means to move into it, taking every inch of the space around us and decorating it with all the little things that make us, us. So let’s unlock the moment and step inside.

Let’s get living in the homent (see what I did there?).

----

Oh hey, whilst you’re here: why not put the “em” into your “emails” and lob your name onto my mailing list for weekly em-bellishments on my rose-tinted, crumb-coated lens of life. It’s the equivalent of the reduced section in the supermarket (low value Weird Crap™ that you didn’t know you needed).

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About the Creator

em

I’m a writer, a storyteller, a lunatic. I imagine in a parallel universe I might be a caricaturist or a botanist or somewhere asleep on the moon — but here, I am a writer, turning moments into multiverses and making homes out of them.

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