Many people find themselves caught up with worries and anxieties. Regrets from the past seem to haunt some people. They think to themselves, “If only I had done this differently!” or “I wish I had never done that!” Yet, the truth is this: whatever it is that we’ve done or not done, the past is behind us. We simply can’t change it. Instead of fretting about our past, we can only come to accept what has been. We can make amends with ourselves or others, but nothing changes what’s already happened.
Similarly, many people worry about the future. “What if this happens?” or “If that happens, it will be horrible!” Many people toss and turn throughout the night worrying about the future. But much like that past, we have little control over the events of the future. We can make plans for the future but find that life’s unexpected events take us in different directions than we had imagined.
The challenge for most people is to learn to live fully in the present moment. While it sounds simple enough, it’s those regrets from the past and worries about the future that hinders most people from living fully in the present.
Zen Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hahn, in his now classic book, The Miracle of Mindfulness, shares the wisdom of the Zen tradition on maintaining focus on the present in the here and now. While he writes about the practice in simple terms, living in the present moment isn’t a new spiritual practice. The Buddha described this present-focus as the key to enlightenment. It’s a matter of waking-up! Jesus conveyed the same insight in slightly different words enjoining his followers to be watchful and to stay awake. This wakefulness is about orienting ourselves to life as it occurs in each moment.
We can practice mindful awareness with simple exercises, like spending time in meditation, following each breath as we breathe in and out. In this way, we are simply aware of our breathing, not controlling it, but being aware as it occurs. This focused awareness allows all other thoughts to fade to the background of our minds.
Many people tell me that they don’t have time to spend in meditation each day. In response, I ask what they do on a routine basis. Many have solitary routines, like washing dishes, working out at a gym, or walking, or jogging. My suggestion is to do a routine activity in a mindful way. If you’re walking or jogging, take off the ear-buds or turn off the music and simply focus your attention on some aspect of the movement, like the sensation of each foot hitting the ground. It’s not necessary to do this for a long time. But if a person begins to practice mindfulness for even five minutes each day, that person will become more aware of the present moment throughout the day.
When I think of what it means to live in the present moment, I often recall a familiar Buddhist story. As the story goes, there was a man running through a jungle. He was being chased by a ferocious tiger. The man ran as fast as he could but he knew that the tiger was gaining on him. He ran out of the thick of the jungle into a clearing. The clearing turned out to be a small piece of land jutting out over a very high, sharp cliff. He looked over the cliff and saw the very long fall down to jagged rocks. Then he turned to see the tiger emerge from the jungle, ready to pounce. The man looked around and thought, “What can I do? I’ll never escape!” It’s then that he saw a vine leading over the edge of the cliff. He grabbed hold of the vine and crawled down a bit just as the tiger looked out over the cliff, growling and showing its teeth. The man looked down and saw the jagged rocks, realizing that a fall from the cliff would mean his death. There seemed to be no escape. As he looked around considering his situation, the man noticed a large red, ripe strawberry in a cleft in the rock. Reaching out, he plucked the strawberry and ate it. The man said to himself, “That’s the best strawberry I’ve ever eaten!” And so the story ends.
Indeed the man was in a dire situation. He could have worried about the tiger, his past, or the jagged rocks below, his future. But if he would have worried about either his past or future, he would have missed the delicious strawberry that was his to enjoy in the present moment. And so it is for us: we can allow ourselves to get caught up in past regrets or worries about the future. Or we can stop, take a deep breath, and become aware of what the present moment offers us. Perhaps we too will find something wonderful which we least expected.