Living in the present moment is a concept many people pay lip service to. But few of us actually engage this principle in our daily walk.

Admit it: You spend almost all of your waking minutes absorbed in thoughts of the past or future. Reflection, regret, anxiety, and apprehension account for the huge majority of your conscious activity on any given day.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with thinking about the past or the future. In fact fond memories and exciting goals help to color our life experience in many wonderful ways.

But there is a serious downside to living perpetually in a future that doesn't yet exist and a past that is gone forever. An individual who spends most of his or her time immersed in past and future fantasies is placing tremendous strain on the intellectual mind, emotional faculties, and even the physical form.

And such a person is literally missing out on the real life experience of right now.

It takes sustained effort to push and process vivid thoughts about what you should have said, how you should have acted, the way things should have turned out, etc. Likewise you are burning substantial emotional fuel when you continually replay a negative potential future in the theatre of your mind.

This method of coping with existence keeps your thought centers in constant motion. And it pushes your emotional processes beyond their natural range of activity.

And observe how your shoulders draw up, your stomach pulls your frame inward, and the muscles in your face grow tight when you are lost in the thought-driven consciousness. It literally takes physical effort to maintain the constant day dreaming and mental chatter.

Living in the present moment you have full access to your mental power, emotional strength, and physical potential. When you relax your body, let go of those heavy thoughts, and allow your emotions to shift into a neutral pattern, you instantly feel lighter and more responsive.

You can refresh your whole life at any time by simply releasing your need to control and analyze and allowing what is to be. For many people this suggestion is far too simple; they need tension, complexity, and struggle to help them make sense of the world.

But profound truth is simple. All that we have and everything we are is right here and right now.

This statement defies the intellectual understanding most of us crave. You must experience the lucidity of present moment awareness for yourself to fully comprehend the rightness of just being.

When you sit quietly in the now you find no regrets and no anxieties. There is only the deep peace, sublime clarity, subtle power, and spontaneous joy of living.

Sages have taught the art of simple allowing for thousands of years. And now more than ever humanity needs to embrace this message.

Anyone can greatly reduce their level of stress, improve their focus and memory, and experience natural happiness by learning to center their awareness in the present. Moreover, you can harness vast stores of new physical, intellectual, and emotional energy when you release the illusion and allow the truth of now to unfold before you.

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