What It Really Means to Live in the Present Moment
Time isn’t what we think.
You may have heard people advising you to live more in the present moment. Be here and now, they’ll say. But what does this really mean? We have no choice but to be in the present moment — because that’s all there is. You couldn’t be anywhere else even if you tried.
What “being in the present moment” really means is this: you are understanding reality. You acknowledge that the present moment is all that exists. Time isn’t what we usually think. We perceive it as flowing, or as us traveling through it. But in fact, we’ve never been anywhere but in the present.
Time is an illusion.
The past is a memory and the future is a possibility. But when we “arrive” at the perceived future, it is the present. We can’t reach outside here and now to anywhere else. This present moment is the only real time. The past and future are illusions.
So, when we say to “be more in the present moment” what we really mean is to let go of fear. Stop worrying about the past, which isn’t real anyway, and stop having anxiety about what could happen in the future. Neither of these times is real right now. You only have the present moment — why fill it with worries and stress?
