5 ways to be more present in your life today.
Being more present has so many benefits, it has us living in the present moment rather than the past; which we cannot change, or the future which we can't control.
When we life in the present moment we are focused on what we can influence today, creating empowerment and happiness for where we are, and it helps deepen relationships with ourselves and others.
There are lots of things we can do to work on being more present, these 5 things are what I believe are easy changes to get us there fast with so many other added benefits as well.
1. GRATITUDE
I know, I know it seems like its just become a buzz word that everyone throws around, but there is good reason for it, being grateful changes our brain and creates feelings of love, compassion and appreciation for the small things. Why is this important?
The thing is most of us are working towards some big goals in our lives and that is the things when we achieve we feel grateful for.
The problem with the big things is once we accomplish them; there is a feeling of excitement, however, if we are not living practicing gratitude, that feeling will be followed by a let down, now that I achieved that “hit” what’s next?
When we are grateful for the little things then we set ourselves up to appreciate the small things in life so there is always something to appreciate, your morning coffee, the flowers, the bird outside your window, the smell of clean sheets, being able to go for a walk because your body still works for you, a smile, etc. Those things are always accessible so they create feelings of gratitude everyday.
Also I can tell you after the loss of my husband I realized the little things are actually the big things.
2. ALONE TIME
I mean quality alone time, not where you check out in front of the TV or catch up on work, I mean connection with self time.
Taking time to meditate, journal about your emotions, think about what you value, personal goals, self-love, self-care, self-reflection time. This allows us to be living in a space of present moment rather than autopilot, list accomplishing, worrying, storytelling, rushed day-to-day life.
We must make this time not just a priority but carve out the sacred time and space to make it happen everyday, even if its just 10 minutes, if you don’t have that for yourself, your in big trouble.
3. PERSONAL GROWTH
Investing in ourselves is the key to a successful, happy life, we must be feeding our brains with content that helps us to evolve and grow, one of the core human needs we all share is growth, if we are not growing we are dying, this is true of all living things.
Find books, podcasts, and magazines, groups that foster that for you. I also recommend you commit to immersion learning at least 2 times per year where you go to an event that immerses you in the content for a couple days, I like to stay away when I do this so I have time in the evening to reflect and create, rather than rushing home to deal with responsibilities at home that will take me out of my learning sticking.
4. MEALS
We all eat meals, but sadly in today’s busy life, we spend a lot of time rushing through jamming food in our mouths, eating in front of our computers or TV.
Training ourselves to eat with mindfulness tasting every bite, feeling the texture in our mouths, paying attention to how it makes our body feel is an excellent way to practice being present, and the side affect of that is that we are likely to eat less, and more healthy when we make meal time important, and who doesn’t want that!
5. MOVE
Kind of like awareness of our emotions and how the food makes us feel, movement has the same affects, feel your body; connect to how your physical impacts your emotions and overall mindset.
When your feeling blah, tired when you shouldn’t be or down, MOVE, jump up, take a walk, hit the gym, do a jumping jack, stretch, anything that gets things flowing in the blood stream!
The more active you are the more in tune with your body you become; this allows you to meet your body’s needs more effectively also.
So you see it doesn’t take much to start being more present, just these simple 5 things will help, and what I love about them is they have plenty more benefits too! You might even being doing some of these already! Let me know how you are making out with them. XO
