When I read the thoughts of other people and listen to what they have to say, I see many common threads and these really get me thinking. I start thinking about how all these common threads could come together and make some overall sense. This is how the concept of “Present Moment Life Choices” has raised itself to me. It’s a concept that seems to satisfy many of the common threads that I see in the observations of others. I find it interesting to explore concepts like these and see how appropriate and useful they might be.
The Present Moment
If you think about it just a little, our lives are really just a series of moments. There is always a present moment and we keep having them until we have no more. We can only do things in the present moment. We can’t do things in the future, we can only plan to do them. We can worry about things done in the past, but we can’t un-do them. All we have is the present moment and, the good news is that, in each present moment, we choose what we want to do, how we want to feel and what attitude we will have.
We construct our lives though our Present Moment Life Choices
Since we choose what we want to do, in each Present Moment, we’re actually constructing our lives one moment at a time. Our lives are the sum total of all of our decisions and actions we make in each Present Moment. Each of the decisions we make are really Life Choices as these are the building blocks of our lives. In essence, we’re creating our lives constantly through the choices we make in every Present Moment. If we make a bad choice in any particular moment, the good news is that we get another moment straight away and we have a new possibility to make a better choice.
How can other people affect our Present Moment Life Choices?
It’s quite common for us to be heavily affected by other people. We worry about pleasing others and we worry about what they’ll think of us. We can actually fall into the trap of letting this worry make our Present Moment Life Choices for us and effectively we’re giving the control of our lives to others. A typical example is our parents. We often make choices that will make our parents happy, even important life choices like the career we follow. If we allow this to happen, then we are not really making our own Present Moment Life Choices, it’s really our parents or other people making those choices. We are not building our own lives but we’ve passed that responsibility to others. This doesn’t seem like a good thing to do.
What happens if we’re absent from the Present Moments?
What if we don’t pay attention to the Present Moments? What if we’re preoccupied with what has happened in the past or might happen in the future? What happens if we’re not mindful of the Present Moment? Well, then we pass the responsibility for making our Present Moment Life Choices to our subconscious brain. This is another bad idea. Recall from other posts, like these;
that the subconscious brain doesn’t always act like our conscious brain would like. It’s not necessarily going to turn out well if we just allow our subconscious mind to handle the Present Moment and make our fundamental Life Choices.
Lessons for my life
Thinking through this concept of Present Moment Life Choices, I find that it helps me approach life. First, I’m really happy to know that I can make the choices in each moment and my life is really being created by me. I love the idea that if I screw up in any given moment, I immediately get another one and a new opportunity to make better choices.
Even though it can be hard work, I want to be present and mindful in as many moments as possible so that I can really make the best choices for my life. So that I can construct a good life and exactly the life I want.
When I feel anger beginning to rise up within me, if I’m mindful and aware of what’s happening, I can take advantage of each Present Moment and be aware of the choices I’m making. I don’t have to repeat the same bad choices. I can choose to make better decisions and change my actions, feelings and/or attitude. This really works. It’s amazing how quickly anger can disappear if I’m mindful of what’s happening and make better choices.
I’m trying to remain mindful and aware of the choices available to me in every moment. I find this a very powerful way to think. We’re not pre-destined or pre-programmed to do certain things. We have the ability to make our own choices every moment of every day. If we can get enough of our choices into the good range, then we’ll be constructing a very worthwhile life, following the right path and generally being happy.
Related Posts and Links
- Want to be happy? Be grateful – David Steindl-Rast talks about being grateful for the gift of each moment
- Nature. Beauty. Gratitude.
- We’ve all been given the gift of a lifetime
- The Depths of Who You Are
- The divine purpose of the universe
One of my life long favorite lines is taken from the title of an old Rod Stewart song or album, I’m not quite certain which it is but regardless, “A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse”. For me this expression has much depth and can easily be applied to many people in my life’s encounters.
That’s a great line, Malin. Thanks. I haven’t heard this line before and apparently it was the name of a 1971 album by a group called “Faces” for which Rod Stewart was the singer (see the Wikipedia post).
It seems like the phrase originated back in the 16th century. The main meaning I see behind this phrase is that if someone is not ready to learn, acknowledge or accept something, then there’s no point trying to use any means to get them to accept it because they just aren’t ready. In fact, if someone isn’t ready for something, it’s unfair and unloving to try and push it onto them.
Thanks for the comment, Malin!