Living in the Present…

Many of you will have made New Year resolutions and, by the time you read this, about 90% have already 'crashed and burned'! But don't despair: Kaie Cozier has written an insightful article about why, in 2015, she's taken a somewhat different approach to New Year resolutions...and not a "crash and burn" in sight!

Here is what she has to say:

Between 31st December of one year and 1st January of the next, the vast majority of people will make New Year’s Resolutions (NYRs). It may just be one (losing weight or getting fit are popular) or a series of them (save money, get a new job, consume less alcohol/food/nicotine, find “the one”). However, according to The Guardian, sometime over this weekend, close to 90% of you will have given up your “resolutions”!!

I too have been on the NYRs bandwagon (weight loss being my mainstay). Last year, I reached a milestone birthday and my list of NYRs was LONG! I got most of the “resolutions” accomplished, including reaching my weight loss goal and having the birthday celebrations that my milestone birthday deserved!

This year, however, I’ve not made a single NYR. Why? Because, instead of living my life a week/month/year in the future, I’ve decided to live it in the present.

As children, we very much lived in the present. When we played, we didn’t plan the games we were going to play, or what characters we were going to be. In fact, we didn’t much think about the future (birthdays and Christmas excluded!) until an adult asked us “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Or when we asked our parents a question they didn’t want to answer and they replied “I’ll tell you when you’re older.” By the time we reached double figures most of our lives were mapped out: what subjects we were going to study at school or university, or what career path we were going to follow, or where we were going to live…and as we reached each “milestone”, more future plans were made…

Well, TODAY is the only day we get. That’s it. As the song says “one day at a time.” That’s not to say we can’t THINK about what we’d like to do in the future, but the only place we can TRULY live is in the present. The here and now. And all the NYRs in the world won’t change that fact.

So, how easy is it to live in the present? It starts with thinking differently: as simple as it may sound, you control your thoughts. Be very specific about what it is that you want to change about yourself, and then work on those changes on a daily basis, rather than making them a 12-month project.

Let’s say you’ve decided to give up smoking. Instead of smoking 20 a day, you decide to smoke 19. At the end of that first “19” day, you’re already a different person. So, when you wake up the next day, let that new you make the decision to make the day an “18” day. That way you’ll be living in the present.

Another way of living in the present is to practice positive thinking, a few minutes at a time. Tell yourself that, regardless of what has happened (or what you think might happen), you are going to enjoy the next 5 minutes. You cannot change the past, nor can you anticipate the future, so when you spent time thinking about things you could or should have done, you’re actually wasting time!

I was raised by my grandparents, and one of my (many) memories is the response my darling Grandma Urse would give if someone said they’d do something “later”. She’d ask “do you have that time put down?” It was her reminder that none of us can guarantee future time; that the only time we have is the here and now.

God has given us this gift called the present. Let’s live it wisely!

Kaie Cozier

To read Kaie’s last article go to  http://www.thereinventiondiva.com/is-there-anything-to-love-about-christmas-by-kaie-cozier/