![A photo of Elk Pass, Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada, and place of peace where you can find present moment awareness.](https://mindfulnaturenut.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/IMG_9956-copy.jpg)
Copyright © 2021 Lee Spirit
I’ve been working on present moment awareness for some time now and I believe it’s something we should all work towards. It means coming into our senses in this current moment. What do you see, hear, feel, taste, touch, and sense right now? At Elk Pass, I was feeling the chill of snow and sub-zero temperatures, and noticing the beauty and peace all around me. Noticing what you sense is coming into present moment awareness, and it’s very important!
Why? When we live in the past, we are depressed, longing for something that once was, and so on. Similarly, when we are too future-focused, we are worried and anxious about what is yet to come. Focusing on the present moment is like balancing these two polarities, and coming into a state of pure consciousness in this moment – Right here, right now. This is how we are when we are born! Nothing has touched our perceptions, or our state of purity, light, and love. Coming back to this state as an adult is one key to lasting joy!
1. Present Moment Awareness Helps You Tame Your Emotions
It’s normal to get emotional about things, but no one wants our emotions to spin out of control. We want to strive for emotional maturity, and that means diffusing our anger, guilt, shame, and other negative emotions so we don’t attack others or ourselves.
Having present moment awareness allows us to come into a space of neutrality where unwanted feelings and negative emotions, habits, and tendencies are tamed. By noticing what we feel, and observing ourselves, we become a witness to our destructive thoughts. This gives us great power over our thoughts, as we come to realize we are not our thoughts, but we are the awareness behind the thoughts.
When we realize this, our emotions dissipate like steam evaporating into the air. Once we notice them fading away, we realize our emotions are not permanent fixtures. They come and go like clouds in the sky. If we allow some time and space for this process to occur, we learn to respond with kindness and compassion rather than reacting with judgement, criticism, or anger.
2. Being Present Frees Up Your Energy
Have you noticed how much energy it takes to get caught up in worry and anxiety? Your thoughts spin out of control through your mind in a constant stream of negativity. You don’t have any energy left at the end of the day, and just want to collapse onto the couch, or go straight to bed.
Negative thoughts and emotions are big energy suckers, so coming into present moment awareness can free up so much of your energy stores! I love the feeling of coming out of a yoga practice or meditation, tingling with warmth and renewed energy. Imagine what it must feel like to be free of stress, anxiety, and worry simply because you’ve taught yourself how to return to that state of pure consciousness and bliss. Even just for a few moments a day, return to your breath, and calm your nervous system!
3. Present Moment Awareness Helps You Get Things Done
When you are all caught up in a whirlwind of pain, grief, depression, or anxiety, there is no time or energy left for getting your daily tasks done. How many times have you put off that laundry, doing the dishes, or taking out the garbage? Your to-do list keeps growing instead of getting smaller. That’s because you’ve allowed the negative thought patterns, habits, and tendencies to occupy your time and energy. Coming into the meditative state frees up your time!
Focus on what you are doing at work instead of playing out dramatic scenes in your mind about this or that. This only robs you of precious time and energy to get things done. Enjoying what you do helps you focus more on the task at hand, and it becomes effortless, efficient, and joyful. There is no longer a need to rush through things. Everything gets completed in its own time.
4. Presence Helps You Handle Change
The only constant in life is change. Resistance to change is futile, because it only brings more strife, and wastes more energy to resist what is bound to happen. There is a lot of uncertainty in the world today, and a lot of change. Yes, it can be quite stressful and turn our lives upside down.
But when we come into present moment awareness, we are better able to cope because we adopt a “go with the flow” attitude. Moving with the current of the Universe allows us to see signs we need to pay attention to. If we see every circumstance as an opportunity for growth, then even the upsetting or “bad” things are seen as necessary for our own development.
5. Present Moment Awareness Sparks Creativity & Magic
The reason I know that becoming more creative in a state of presence is true is because often when I’m outside for a run, I get into that neutral space of pure consciousness. I’m focused only on my breath and sensations in the body and air.
It is during these moments that suddenly a creative inspiration will flow into my consciousness – the perfect words to say or write, for example. Perhaps I’ll suddenly find a solution to a problem I’ve been struggling with. There is magic in the neutrality of soul, we just have to find the method of getting there that is right for us. You may not be a runner, and you may not enjoy yoga and meditation. Find the activity that is right for you – something that gets you into that state. A walk by the ocean or river, being in the forest, or petting your dog or cat.
6. Living in the Now Brings Lightness of Spirit
What I mean by “lightness of spirit” is that when we are living in the “now”, we become more light-hearted – We lighten up, so to speak. Taking things less seriously, we find room for joy, laughter, creativity, magic, and play. Laughing at ourselves and our follies and foibles is good medicine for the soul! In laughter, we create connection.
7. Present Moment Awareness Makes Us Less Irritable
There are so many things that annoy and irritate us on a daily basis. My big one is noise. Noise from the neighbours above me, noisy chatter at work, and noise from power tools and construction outside. It’s a challenge for me to come into presence and just be with these noises that bother me!
The key thing to remember here is that what annoys and irritates us is a reflection of ourselves and our own inner states. This means I may have a little too much mind-chatter noise going on internally. I know more work is required because the noise still gets my feathers ruffled! But I find that the more meditation and yoga I do, the more I am able to live with, and tune out these distractions. The calmer my inner state is, the less likely I will be affected by external circumstances.
8. Increased Presence Brings Improved Health
We all want to be healthy, but when our minds, bodies, and spirits are unwell, it seems to have a snowball effect in that we keep habitually doing the things that lead to poor health. Then we feel worse about ourselves, and so eat more junk food and treat ourselves poorly.
A great consequence of coming more into presence is that we automatically feel better, and feeling better makes us do more healthy things. We eat and drink healthier for our wellbeing. This, in turn, creates a health vibration in our energy centres, and we feel more radiant and alive. Exercising in whatever form we enjoy and can sustain over a long period of time becomes more desirable. We learn to take care of ourselves better, and in doing so we can take better care of others.
9. Present Moment Awareness Develops Our Spidey-Senses
Being present in pure conscious bliss tends to make our vessels more open to receive the wisdom of our intuition. Our Spidey-senses start tingling, and we are better able to know when something is about to happen ahead of time. I often sense things before they happen, like in a burst of emotion, where I’m thinking, “Where on earth did that come from and why?” Then the answer becomes clear shortly thereafter. When we balance our inner knowing with our hearts, we can speak and act from a place of authenticity.
10. Being More Present Creates More Synchronicities
Oh, how I love a good meaningful coincidence! The more present we are, the more open and receptive we are to synchronicities. These random events are like little moments of magic. They can be positive or negative, but always they are messages we need to pay attention to, like receiving guidance from our angels.
Click Here For The Meaning of Synchronicities!
These are just a few ways that present moment awareness can be helpful to our lives and why we want more of this! It doesn’t happen magically without a bit of work on our part. You must be willing to engage in a regular practice of exercise in nature, yoga, meditation, or any other activity that gets you into a calm, neutral space – free of stress, anxiety, and despair.
Lee Spirit is an avid outdoors adventurer with a love for nature, photography, health & fitness, wellness, and spirituality. She helps those who suffer from anxiety & negative thinking to become healthier in mind-body-spirit. Her own personal journey has led her to the study and practice of mindfulness, health, wellness, yoga, spirituality, sound healing, meditation, and personal development for over 20 years. Get mindfulness, meditation, and personal development tips in her Free Natural Mind Healing Report.