How to Be More Present

Author Eckhart Tolle has great insight into the problem of fixating on the past or future; he once said, “All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry—all forms of fear—are caused by too much future and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances,

being grounded and resolved enough to actually be fully present and centered…which is as “in control” as a human can be.

Unless you stay present — and inhabiting your body is always an essential aspect of it — you will continue to be run by your mind.

When you focus your mind on the present moment, on the process of what you are doing right now, you are always where you want to be and where you should be. All of your energy goes into what you are doing.

At what crucial moments might you be present in body but gone mentally or emotionally, living in some other moment? What could help you return to right now and savor it?

If you’re not in the here and now, then you’re simply in your head. There’s nowhere else to be. If the past twenty years feel more like a week, it might be because you spent only a week of that time truly experiencing life, being fully present.