Jan 6 Living in the Present

Many of us live in the past. We hang onto old issues, replaying them in our minds.
We think about things we should have done and things we shouldn’t have done, what we wish had happened, or what we lost. We may be angry at ourselves or at other people, making plans to get even, to show them a thing or two. We may be stuck on “if only” – if only something had not happened, if we had made another choice, everything would be fine.
It is important to learn from the past – we don’t want to make the same mistakes over and over again. But, as the saying goes, the past is a nice place to visit, but you don’t want to live there. You can’t have peace now if you are living in the past. If you want to have peace now, you have to be present in this moment. Even if a past event is a pleasant one, it is gone. You can create other wonderful moments, but only if you focus on your life now.
Today, think of one past event, good or bad, that you hang onto. For five minutes, let go of it.