01:16 Aug 15 2021
Times Read: 468
We all feel pulled. To do more. To go more places. To make more progress. We are dogged by the constant worry we’re in the wrong place, doing the wrong thing—or rather, there is somewhere else, somewhere better that we could, that we should, be.
It’s a feeling that manifests in many forms: Guilt. Anxiety. Envy. Fear. Insecurity. Basically, misery. The exact opposite of being content, happy or grateful. Of being present.
Marcus Aurelius knew this. Why do you think he mentioned “the present” and “the present moment” more than twenty times in Meditations? Each time he is saying, don’t worry about the past, don’t worry about the future, embrace what is in front of you right now. Be here now, he is saying. Don’t be somewhere else. Be here, and be here well.
It’s a reminder we seem to need constantly. Our restlessness, at an almost cultural level, is depriving us of the gift and beauty of the moment that is before us. Instead of doing what we’re doing with the full measure of our attention, we give it whatever fraction has not wandered away or been stolen by the device in our pocket. And then we wonder why time flies by, why we have to return to clean up mistakes, or why we never feel good enough.
Stop.
Do what you’re doing—whether it’s washing the dishes, sitting in traffic or writing your thesis. Be where you are—whether that’s with your kids, or in a career transition or at the doctor’s office. It’s where you’re supposed to be. In the right now, there is nothing else. Just this. In the right here, the present is all there is.
Be there, be there we'll.... TheDailyStoic
COMMENTS
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ThunderMoon
01:18 Aug 15 2021
Good read sir