Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, however, today is a gift , that is why it is called present. This is what the master said to Kung Fu Panda. The now is a present, even confined.
It is difficult for us to live in the present because we are very concerned with the situation we are experiencing. A virus that has subdued us . It has managed to lock us up at home, change our way of working for those who can work, children, adolescents and university students without classes, we put on a mask to go out and maintain social distancing in pharmacies and supermarkets. How are we going to live a present that we do not want to live? How to be present and enjoy a moment that we would never have chosen in life?
Living in the past makes us sad … Those times, right? Those times when we felt healthy and free. Even when we fantasize about the future “how I would like to be on terraces and with a beer in hand”, we do it to return to the past and feel that longing and nostalgia that helps us to continue being who we were.
As for the future … if anticipating the future, especially in regards to the negative, somehow predicted it, that would be great. We have less control over the future than we imagine. We have become accustomed to having control gives us security and it is true, but this is only possible for a very small percentage of our lives.
While we look to the future with fear and uncertainty , we stop living in the present … we like our present now more or we like it less. Without knowing how we are going to develop in the future, exactly how long we will be confined, how long it will take to return to absolute normality, let’s live now, we already have enough.
To live in the present in times of confinement:
What if we start by accepting what we have?
You cannot enjoy the present moment if you do not accept the moment you are in. When the head flies to the past and the future, you are not in what you are. If you want to complain, rant about what is happening, do it. But only once. Take a notebook and write down everything you hate , what scares you, what has you in a “sinvivir”. Write it down and accept that this is our situation now.
Don’t run away from the situation, try to live in it . They say that when a wave drags you into the sea it is better to stop fighting so that it does not roll us over. The ideal is to let ourselves be carried away within it and as soon as it breaks on the shore, leave. You must do something like that, let yourself go, flow, act with what is controllable on your part, but don’t try to spend all day asking and answering questions like “but how long is this going to last!” telling the truth? »,« this is getting too much »… because we have no answers.
Any past time … it wasn’t better
If we hold on to this saying we will not be able to live in the present. We will always want to go back to the moment when we were going out for tapas, when we were younger or when a certain person was still in our lives.
We can think and fantasize about the past to relive moments as a family, to see old photos and locate them, to involve our elders with their battles, but not to suffer thinking how happy we were before.
If you don’t like your present, what can you change about it?
We cannot change the uncertainty, nor anticipate the future, but we can make small changes in the now to be able to enjoy it better. It is one thing to accept and another to resign . You resign yourself when you decide not to get out of bed, when you live all day in your pajamas, when you complain about everything to everyone but do not act to feel better, when you scare others looking for that complicity that justifies your inactivity.
You can change aspects of your present to live and enjoy better. Although it is not the dream situation. If you asked yourself the question, what could I do today to live with more awareness, with more purpose? … what would you do? You can start by answering it on a daily basis and taking action.
Life is largely the one that touches us and in another part the one that one chooses. We don’t choose many of our circumstances, but the way we want to live them.
