15 ways to live in the moment

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Today I'm featuring a guest post on Positively Present written by Melissa Tamura, who recently ranked online schools for Zen College Life, a directory of online degrees. She's going to give you some great guidance on how you can live in the moment -- starting right now!

It is very easy to expend all your energy worrying. Concerns about past mistakes, rehashing what you should have done, revisiting occasions of sadness or anger expend time and energy. Many people think of the future with anxiety, anticipating problems that they may not be able to overcome. Losing sleep, feeling on edge, and stress-related maladies can be the results. One way to get out of the worry habit is to heighten your awareness of the present. Things are happening all around you every minute of the day. Why not focus on what is going on now, enjoying the simple fact of being alive and immediate, rather than casting your thoughts forward or backward to events you cannot change? The principle is simple, but the art is more complex. It takes practice, discipline, and above all, focus. Try the following 15 ways to live in the moment as warm-up exercises for learning to enjoy your life more fully in the here and now.


15 Ways to Live in the Moment 

1. Listen. Stand still and focus on the sounds around you. What you hear is life happening. Try narrowing your focus to one distinctive sound and block out the others.

2. See. Being introspective can be enlightening, but to live in the moment, use your eyes to look outside yourself. What color is the sky?

3. Feel. On a sensory level, feel the environment around you. Is it warm against your skin? Feel the humidity in the air, note the slant of the sun's warmth or the briskness of wind in your hair.

4. Smell. Fill your lungs with the scents of the day. Pleasant aromas, sharp odors, even sensory hints that are barely there, like the smell of rain, are all part of what is happening right now.

5. Touch. Ground yourself in the moment by holding on. If you find your mind drifting back to its customary worries, touch a railing, pull a leaf from a tree, shake hands with a friend to stay current.

6. Taste. Rather than automatically downing that morning coffee, focus on your taste buds to experience all its nuances of flavor. Savor your toast. Living in the moment means focusing on what you are doing right now.

    

7. Create. Draw a doodle. Compose haiku. Fold that memo into an origami crane. Give your complete attention to the something you are making out of nothing.

8. Laugh. Do not let your enjoyment of the present be clouded by habitual worries about the past or future. If you see something funny, laugh. It feels great.

    

    

9. Run. Set your mind free by focusing on the physical. Run until you are out of breath.

10. Meditate. The secret is to discipline your mind to float freely. Do not allow it to tether itself to memory or anticipation. Meditate with your eyes on a focal point nearby and keep your thoughts untethered.

11. Communicate. One of the best ways to put down your mental burdens for awhile is to engage. Ask a question at a lecture. Join in a sing-along. Enter into a friendly debate.

     

12. Invest. Do not just observe the world around you; join it. Allow your mind to observe and interpret what you see, hear, and feel. Care about the moment.

13. Help. When you are helping someone else with a problem, you forget your own for the moment.

14. React. Living in the moment does not mean sailing through untouched. Respond to the here and now as it happens.

15. Be. Feel the effect of your own presence in the present, and refresh yourself with each moment that goes by.

This guest post was written by Melissa Tamura, who recently ranked online schools for Zen College Life, a directory of online degrees. For more ways to live in the moment, check out the following links: 

Time To Wake Up: Making the Most of the Moment

100 Ways to Live in the Moment

Dip Your Toes Into the Moment

 

Comments

[Jarrod@ Optimistic Journey]

I love how you broke down the senses because for me, often times being in the moment is being in touch with what I hear around me, see with my eyes feel with both my touch and emotionally and smell.

Thanks for sharing!!

[Phil - Less Ordinary Living]

Melissa -

Very clear, simple advice for living in the moment. I find that learning to detach from my emotions and thoughts through meditation and contemplation really helps me be present. I can keep my mind open and also be aware when I'm getting tied up in knots by my thoughts. Realy liked this post. Thanks.

Phil

[Topi]

This is a wonderful list of ways to practice staying in the moment, because so much about the art of "being present" depends on stopping to experience the senses, or the way you feel at a particular moment, and what you do in response.
Topi

[Kate]

This is a great collection of tips. I find when I get snowed under, stressed or just feel a little overwhelmed, 2 minutes outside looking up at the sky and breathing deeply calms me and puts things in perspective. It never looks the same and the vastness makes me realise how small my current 'problems' really are. If I can be barefoot on the grass at the same time so much the better!

Many thanks,
Kate

[HappinessandWisdom]

What a great list of helpful ways to stay 'in the moment.' I saw the other comment on meditation and I realized why I liked many these tips so much. In their own way, many of these, particularly those involving the senses, can be a meditation of sorts. Simply stopping, focusing the mind in the ways you describe, can allow us to enter into a meditative state. These meditations will keep us from thinking about what was or what might be, as they create a laser focus on what is. Thank you very much for these helpful reminders - reading this post has made me very happy!

[Farnoosh]

All of them are great in their own way but together, combined, and lived each day, now that is the magical key to being in the moment....I'd add yoga but you have meditation too.

[positively present]

Jarrod - I'm so glad you enjoyed Melissa's post and the way she chose to focus on the senses. I also thought that was a great way to live in the moment.

Phil - Thanks for your comment to Melissa. She did offer a great post with excellent advice on how to live in the moment. Meditation is definitely a great way to detach and focus only on the present.

Topi - I agree! I'm so glad Melissa stopped by with this post and her great ideas for living in the moment. Being conscious of our senses, as Melissa mentioned, really is a great way to stay in the now.

Kate - I'm with you! Melissa did a great job of coming up with practical tips for staying in the moment. I really like your tip about going outside for 2 minutes and focusing on the sky. What a great way to keep things in perspective. I'm going to try that one the next time I lose sight of the moment!

H&W- You're so right that many of these tips, especially when put together, are very similar to meditation. If we pay attention to what's going on with our senses, we'll be much more likely to stay in the present moment.

Farnoosh - I completely agree with you. Each tip offers something but, put together, these add up to a very positively present life! Thanks for mentioning yoga; I've never done it but heard it's a great way to be in the moment.

[Faizal]

I thought this was great to read. Being in the moment is an awesome experience. I feel connected with the world around me and my focus is on the NOW instead of my mind wandering from one thing to another. Thanks

[positively present]

Faizal - Me too! I really enjoyed Melissa's post about being in the moment. It's not always easy to stay present, but I think these tips will really help me focus on the now when my mind starts to wander. Thanks for your comment!

[J.D. Meier]

Being introspective is enlightening -- it also helps us rewire our neural pathways to lead ourselves better from the inside out.