August 11, 2014

How To Live In The Moment



I am going to cross pollinate with my buddy over at Living OxyMor(m)on. In Nate's latest post, he shares his struggle with living in the moment. While I in no way want to lessen his struggle, I want to share my own take on it. In so doing, I hope to explain a little about my life living in Utah for the past month and couple of weeks.

Nate writes, that living in the moment is, "not worrying about the future, and not fretting about the past. Just embracing what’s happening riiiiight now. It seems really easy, but I’m here to tell you: it’s far from it, baby." In my humblest of opinions, Nathan suffers from a tinseltown distortion of reality.

I remember back in the days of middle school and early high school, lamenting the mornings that never seemed to be just right. Based off of shows and characters from those favorite shows, the sun never seemed to be high in the sky when I awoke in the morning. The time between waking and walking leisurely to school did not last 6 hours. Hall time between classes was not long enough to have full conversations let alone two or three. My life wasn't like what was shown on the screen. It never came close to matching those of my favorite characters, no matter how hard I tried. My tinseltown distortion of reality really brought my highest of expectations to a saddening lull.

Nate, who I have known digitally for almost a year and in person for just over a month, struggles with his desire to live in the moment. Let me ask you, who in this world, is able to live in the moment? Even my granolest (made up word of mine) of friends live to find the simplicity of their past and struggle for the smoothest sailing future.

When I was preparing to move to Utah, I longed for the freedom of my individuality, I planned for the endless parties I would host and reveled in the future exploring of the Utah outdoors. Now, living here for just over a month, my life is not very different from my past. Yes, I have met people who I have known only digitally. Yes I have seen some breath taking views of Utah. And yes, I have attended my share of social gatherings. But my tinseltown vision for my life, post-college, is a slight increase, if not flatlining reality.

However, that is part of the beauty of it. I have come to find the awesomeness in stability and measured expectations. I have a dear friend of mine who is, to put it bluntly, a thrill seeker. This friend is always looking for the next best thing. Leaving anything boring, mundane or flat out of their life, even if that means a friend who is visiting them from far away. Always changing plans to chase the better thrill, I have come to learn something from this friend. They are never happy. Yes they "live in the moment", but that moment never quite satisfies them.

So, Nate, living in the moment isn't really truly possible. It's a make believe notion. The more you strive for it, the further away it will feel. I think to really "live in the moment" is to embrace that your life is one big moment. Stop striving for what should have been or what possibly could be, and suddenly, what is, will simply be.

I believe that when we stop trying to live in the moment, we can finally live.

P.S. I also started keeping a weekly blog for family and friends of the thing I had done in the previous week. I came to realize, while I think my life is boring and mundane, I actually do a lot of cool things with a lot of great people. Try journaling things you do, and I think you will discover you're a bit awesome.

3 comments:

  1. My comment turned into a post of its own :D

    http://livingoxymormon.com/2014/08/mindfulness/

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  2. Love that line, Trev: "Stop striving for what should have been or what possibly could be, and suddenly, what is, will simply be." I needed that inspiration today.

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