Chapter 2: Living in the Moment
“The past exists only in our memories, the future only in our plans. The present is our only reality.”
Robert M. Pirsig
No matter how hard we plan or how hard we work, sometimes things don’t always work out the way we want them to… and that is okay. In fact, it is more than okay because it forces us to come back to the present moment instead of focusing on the future ahead. Something we sometimes struggle with is staying present and truly living in the moment. Staying present has been especially hard for us lately because of how busy our schedules are.
We are natural planners, (well, Andrea is) so it is easy for us to want to plan out every moment of our days and weeks in an attempt to stay on top of everything we have going on. And planning is great to an extent, but when we get caught up in the plan, that is often our downfall.
The key thing for us right now is making sure that, no matter what, we can go out and act and not have to overthink everything that we do. When we travel to these incredible places, of course, we want to experience everything they have to offer, but when we rush around, we aren’t enjoying each thing while we are there. Living in the present moment allows us to be thankful for every little thing, like the little bees that fly by enjoying the sunny day or the shimmering of the trees on our afternoon hikes.
It expands what you get out of a place when you can truly enjoy being there.
Living life on the road can sometimes come with this need to want to see everything all at once. Something that helped us was realizing that these places aren’t going anywhere and that we can always come back. When we spend all of our time worrying about the future or thinking about what we didn’t get to see, we are missing out on all of the other moments we did experience.
What has helped us live more in the moment is:
- Becoming comfortable with the ebb and flow of life,
- Switching from a waiting mindset to an enjoying mindset,
- And taking a break from the digital world.
Living in the moment helps us realize that every opportunity we have tomorrow is determined by our intention, purpose, and desire today. We have the power to control our destiny, and that is something we never want to pass up.
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