Mindfulness and spirituality 101.. paved by the likes of Eckhart Tolle & Ram Dass, the importance of living in the present moment is something pretty much everyone in the wellness world agrees on. That’s easy right - recognising something as true. It’s a very different story to take that knowledge and turn it into a practice in our own lives. It’s such a simple concept that it almost becomes easy to overlook. It’s so easy to get caught in the motion of what we want our lives to look like - that we miss acknowledging them as they are. As soon as we start thinking about tomorrow, yesterday, or last week.. we have taken our energy and placed it where we are not. It’s like going to the movies and wondering what movie you’d like to see next at the same time. Doesn’t make a lot of sense. I find that my goals are like the movies I’d like to see. So often I find myself thinking about the life I want to create that I’ve forgotten I’m actually in the middle of creating it. One of the best practices I’ve found for this is to start questioning your thoughts. When you notice that you’ve started to simmer on thoughts about something that’s coming up in the next few days / weeks / months - pause and ask yourself: is it helpful to be thinking about this now? Is there anything I can do right now that would better prepare me? If not - can I give myself permission to let go of these thoughts? And the same goes for thinking about our past.. replaying events over and over in our minds isn’t healthy. Ask yourself: does it benefit me to be thinking about this? Do I want to continue to put my energy into my past? Can I let go of this? There’s no judgement in these questions, just space - space to make a new choice. Space to place your energy in a more conscious way. I’ve found that forcing myself to be present doesn’t last very long. But when you turn it into a practice.. it becomes a habit and then a state of mind. We can use tools like this to help guide our minds, and train them to focus on what’s most important - which is this precious little moment right here.