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Does Living in the Moment Demand That You Give up Your Future?
What about your goals and dreams?
Live in the moment.
Be present.
Live in the now.
Stop to smell the roses.
We are constantly bombarded by these kinds of messages. Are you tired of hearing them? Do you think they’re overly simplistic and naive?
Doesn’t living in the moment sound like we’re supposed to ignore our pasts and neglect our futures? Doesn’t it sound like we’re supposed to give up making any sort of positive progress in our lives?
While we may think there is something attractive about living in the moment, we may also have the sense that it just isn’t practical. It sounds like a consequence of living in the moment is our stagnation.
Is it possible to reconcile these perspectives? Can we live in the moment without tossing aside the progress we desire?
And, if so, how?
Paying attention to the not-now
It’s obvious that we need to think about the past. If I’ve made a mistake, I’ll never learn from it if I don’t think about what I’ll do differently next time. Is this not considered being present?
