DISCLOSURE: This post may contain affiliate links through which I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.
“Let go of the past, don’t stress about the future and just enjoy the present”, you must have heard this advice a thousand times, but did anyone tell you how to actually apply this?
Probably not. Am I right?
If you want to gain more clarity and presence in your life—then you landed on the right article. Here you will discover how you can let go of your past and focus on the present moment.
Some refer to the present moment as the ultimate productivity hack. In fact, many biohackers associate the “flow state” as being fully invested in the present moment.
Having the ability to focus your energy and attention in the present moment can have numerous beneficial implications for your life, career, and/or business.
Unfortunately, as we grow older, our responsibilities increase which leads to an increase in stress and anxiety. Thus, with time our ability to be present begins to lessen.
If you’re someone who values productivity, which I bet you are, productivity requires you to be focused on the present moment.
You can’t be productive while also thinking about what software you’re going to use to file your taxes this year.
Thus, it’s imperative that you cultivate the ability to seek out the present moment instead of stressing about the past or the future.
This ability to be present is also referred to as mindfulness. In fact, I will use “being present” and “mindfulness” interchangeably throughout this article.
Mindfulness is the ability to focus on the present moment. It opens your awareness to your surroundings, and it can help you to see your life through a new perspective.
In order to help you develop the beneficial trait of mindfulness, I’ve put together 7 proven tips for daily life.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
1. Shield Yourself from Distractions
Distraction is the arch nemesis of mindfulness. If there is something in your environment that acts as a constant distraction, you should remove it immediately.
If you don’t, your attention will be continuously be pulled away from you and your productivity will suffer.
How to minimize distractions?
Step 1. Try to recognize the distractions.
Step 2. Try to distance yourself from the distractions physically as well mentally.
Step 3. Try to be more present.
Recognizing distraction is the first and most important step. You can build a shield against distraction only when you recognize what distractions are holding you back from being more present.
Fortunately, identifying distractions isn’t very difficult. However, it does require you to develop a certain level of awareness and honesty.
For instance, some people are hesitant to label certain things as distractions. Such as, email, messaging apps, or YouTube.
Now, these might stand out as obvious distractions to some, but many people will often justify them as necessities for work.
For instance, have you ever watched a video on YouTube that was work related—only to find yourself falling down the cat video rabbit hole?
Don’t feel ashamed, we’ve all been there. This is the danger of some of these tools. They take are designed to steal away your attention.
Don’t let yourself fall into this trap. If you have a company Facebook page, you don’t need to check it every couple of minutes or respond to every comment.
The same goes for Instagram. Many people use Instagram for their work or business, which is fine, but they usually end up getting distracted and wasting valuable time.
If you use social media for your work or business, hire someone to manage it for you. It will free up your time so can focus on more important things—like taking your business to the next level.
Once you are able to eliminate all of the major distractions from your environment—you will be one step closer to accessing the present moment and levelling up your productivity.
“Be aware when distractions come your way. You’ll know it’s a distraction when you stop doing what you’re supposed to be doing and find yourself pondering things that have no value.”
– Beverly R. Imes
2. Maintain physical health
Poor health could be termed the biggest impediment in your efforts to be being more present. Even a small issue in your body can distract you from the present moment.
Thus, you should seek to optimize your physical health.
Imagine for a moment that you are sitting in lotus pose trying to meditate. Just as you start to notice the incessant chattering of your mind begin to wane—you suddenly feel a sharp pain in your foot.
That would be distracting, right?
The same applies to your work life. If you are constantly distracted with health-related issues, you won’t be able to concentrate and focus on your work.
Physical fitness and well-being are essential for mindfulness. Even a minor ache will distract you from being in the present moment.
While you cannot control everything that goes on with your body. You can control how you use it and what you put in it.
Make sure that you are setting aside time for daily exercise every day. Whether that’s jogging before work or practicing yoga every evening.
It’s important to get some form of exercise every day. And remember, consistency is key. If you want to be physically fit—you must commit to exercising every day.
Overtime, your daily workout regime will turn into a habit and it will become a natural part of your routine. You might even look forward to it.
Maintaining optimal physical health is one of the most important components to cultivating mindfulness and living in the present moment.
Being physically healthy will allow you to access the present moment without being distracted by physical ailments. Just make sure to take care of your body and try to avoid injuries.
Improve Your Diet
Another key component to a healthy body is a healthy diet. If you eat healthy—you stay healthy. Your body is a direct reflection of your lifestyle and eating habits. And diet plays an enormous role in how your body looks and performs.
Your diet also plays a significant role in your mental well-being. In fact, research shows that eating a Mediterranean-style diet, which is high in vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, fish, etc., results in lower levels of depression and anxiety [1].
We’ve all experienced states of depression and/or anxiety at some point in our lives. While in these states, it’s almost impossible to be in the present moment.
We are almost always either thinking of some event in the past or projecting to some unlikely future event.
As a result, improving depression and anxiety will in turn improve your levels of awareness and mindfulness.
To start, write down everything that you typically eat on any given day. Remember, be honest here. If you snuck an Oreo cookie before bed—mark it down.
If you really want to get a good idea of what your diet looks like, write down everything that you eat for an entire week.
Once you have a solid idea of what you eat in a given day, ask yourself some questions.
“Do I eat too much junk food?”
“What nutrients are missing from my diet?”
Answering these diet related questions will help you to clarify what is missing from your diet and what you know you should add and remove.
If you feel it necessary, consult with a dietician and commit to their recommendations. Remember, no diet on earth will work if you don’t fully commit to it.
Improving your diet will not only nourish your body and mind, it will also help you achieve more mindful awareness and presence in your daily life.
Exercise daily
Getting daily exercise is critical to keeping a healthy body and mind. This is why it’s imperative that you have a daily exercise routine that you can easily perform anywhere.
For instance, if you enjoy jogging, try jogging every morning. This will help you to start your day off on the right foot and will likely lead to other healthy choices throughout the day.
The good thing about jogging—it’s not limited to your home or gym. You can literally jog anywhere.
This is why I like jogging for a daily exercise routine. It’s an exercise that can easily be performed anywhere and there is no excuse for not doing it. Aside from injuries of course.
Furthermore, jogging is a great way to practice mindfulness. Runners often report a feeling of “flow” or “being in the zone” when running.
This is just another way of saying that they are fully engaged in the present moment. In other words, they are so focused on the present moment that all other distractions have disappeared and they’re full attention is locked in on what they are doing.
Remember, our bodies are like fine-tuned machines, if there is a broken part or malfunctioning component, the entire machine will suffer, and can even shut down.
In order to maintain a healthy body and mind—you must maintain a daily exercise routine. In turn, this will help you to access a more mindful state of being and aid you on your journey to becoming your best self.
3. Take care of your mental health
In recent years, mental health has emerged as a topic of increasing interest. The fact is, we all have mental health issues.
Sometimes our mental health is good and sometimes—not so much. The point is, we all experience varying levels of mental health and it’s important that we talk about how our mental health affects us and what we can do to improve it.
Let’s face it, it’s nearly impossible to be present when your mind is preoccupied with the disturbing thoughts and emotions.
Having a healthy mental state is essential for your well-being and for your ability to be more present.
Negativity, anxiety, frustration, anger, depression. These are only a few mental states that will take you away from the present moment.
There are numerous factors that affect your mental health both positively and negatively. If you desire to be more present, you must focus on cultivating the positive ones.
Your level of mindfulness is largely dependent on your emotional state and your emotional state is directly influenced by your mental health.
In order to achieve more mindfulness in your life, you must take time to focus on your mental health.
Pay close attention to what is nourishing to your mental health—and what is damaging. It’s important that you’re honest with yourself during this process.
If you discover that some of your friends are negatively impacting your mental health, you might consider finding new friends.
Once you start discovering things that have a positive impact on your mental health, nurture them and incorporate them into your life as often as you can.
Once you do, your mental health will start to improve, and you will discover a new level of presence and peace in your life.
“The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.” — Abraham Maslow
4. Meditate Daily
Meditation is one of the best ways to increase one’s awareness and presence. There are many different forms of meditation but the one I’m going to focus on (so to speak) is aptly referred to as mindfulness meditation.
At its core, mindfulness meditation is meant to shift your awareness from the never-ending onslaught of random thoughts—to the present moment.
This is done by focusing your attention or awareness on your breath. Each time a random thought enters into your mind—you simply refocus your attention back to your breath.
For instance, if you were meditating and suddenly an image of your ex popped into your head, you would acknowledge the thought in a non-judgmental manner—and then gently bring your awareness back to your breath.
Notice I didn’t say force your attention back to your breath. This is supposed to be a calm and relaxing experience.
Thus, there is no forcing or demanding allowed. Just follow your breath until a random thought enters your mind and keep redirecting your attention back to your breath.
It’s very simple—yet very challenging at the same time. The best advice I can give is to be patient with yourself.
If you fight with your thoughts and try to force your attention to stay fixated on your breath, you will have a miserable experience, believe me.
Meditation is an extremely personal practice. It is your time alone with yourself. Meditation allows you to evaluate yourself from a unique perspective.
In those few moments of meditation, you feel detached from the materialistic world and you gradually develop the skill of concentration.
Meditation is also a very important tool for improving focus and concentration. If you meditate daily, you will notice considerable progress in your levels of concentration and awareness.
4. Help Others
Helping others has a positive effect on your physical and mental well-being. It is often said that “By helping others, you help yourself”.
And research shows this to be true. Research has shown that helping others has a wide variety of benefits, including:
- Increased levels of happiness.
- Increase sense of purpose and meaning.
- Lowers blood pressure.
- Increased life satisfaction.
One of the contributing factors to these incredible benefits is mindfulness. When we help others, we take our attention off ourselves and focus on other people.
A large part of suffering is due to self-criticism and self-loathing. Essentially, when we focus on ourselves—we are less happy.
Being aware of other people’s wants and needs is a great way to practice mindfulness. It helps to focus our attention towards helping others and away from analysing ourselves.
Not only will helping others increase your physical and mental health, it will help to increase your mindfulness as well.
And the best part of all, you will be helping to make the world a better place. When you help others, it activates a positivity domino effect.
The more people you help—the more people they will help. In other words, you can help perhaps hundreds of people simply by helping one person.
Imagine how different the world would be if everyone took the time to help just one person every day.
5. Organize Your Day
In our modern hectic world, being present and in the moment can feel like an impossible task. This is largely due to our busy schedules and numerous obligations.
Fortunately, there are things you can do to create more space for the present moment, like organizing your day.
Most people don’t take the time to sit down and organize their day. As a result, their attention is constantly being pulled away from them.
This never-ending struggle usually persists throughout the day and leaves most people feeling physically and emotionally drained.
When you take the time to plan and schedule your day—you are preparing yourself for what’s to come.
This way you can act—instead of react. You will be able to focus on getting your most important tasks done so you can take time for yourself.
Furthermore, being in the present moment allows you to contribute your whole heart and mind to the activity at hand.
This will help to improve the quality of your work and allow you to get more done in less time.
If you organize your day every morning and schedule your most important tasks first, you will free up your day to spend more time on yourself.
So, what will you do with all this extra time?
Well, that’s up to you, but whatever it is make sure that you are mindful while doing it.
6. Celebrate Your Small Wins
We all have ups and downs throughout out the day. Sometimes we experience huge wins and sometimes we experience soul crushing failures.
The wins should be celebrated, and the failures should be chalked up to nothing more than learning opportunities.
However, you don’t have to wait for the big wins to celebrate. In fact, it might be even more important to celebrate the small wins.
When you celebrate your small victories throughout the day, you activate your brain’s reward system.
This system releases feel good neurotransmitters into your brain, the most important of which is called dopamine. I’m sure you’ve heard of it.
Dopamine has been referred to as the “chemical of champions” because of the strong link between high achievers and dopamine levels.
When you celebrate your small wins, you are priming your brain to focus on winning. This also helps you to stay focused and present.
If you track your activities throughout the day and set aside time to celebrate your small victories, you will be training your brain to seek out success and to stay mindful of new opportunities.
Set achievable goals every morning and try to stay mindful of your small victories throughout the day.
Not only will you naturally become more driven to succeed, you will also train your mind to be more mindful and present in your daily life.
7. Look on the Bright Side
During these tumultuous times, it can be challenging to maintain a sunny outlook on life. We’re told to approach life with a “glass half full” kind of perspective.
But is this realistic?
While it can certainly be difficult to stay positive when everything appears to be overwhelmingly negative, it’s still important none the less.
Research shows that having a positive outlook on life can have numerous benefits—both physically and mentally.
For example, a Harvard study looked at 70,000 participants and found that the ones that had an optimistic outlook on life had lower cases of cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections, and respiratory disease [2].
If these benefits aren’t enough to motivate you to wear your rose-coloured glasses, having a positive outlook can also help you to stay mindful.
When you choose to focus your attention on the positives instead of the negatives, you are making a conscious choice to be more mindful.
It takes effort to be positive. In fact, I think it’s often easier to be negative than it is positive. Especially, if you spend any time on social media, don’t get me started.
So, how do I start looking on the bright side?
Well, start by writing down things that are positive in your life. This is a similar strategy to my gratitude practice.
This will help train your brain to start looking for and appreciating the good instead of the bad.
Overtime, your outlook on life will naturally become more positive and optimistic. Just make sure you practice this strategy every day.
If you do, it will turn into a habit, and like all habits it will become an effortless practice that you’ll start to enjoy doing.
“Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.” — Mother Teresa
Final Thoughts
With the current state of our stress laden society, finding the present moment has never been more important.
Unfortunately, most people are so busy that they struggle to find time to be present. And if they do have a couple moments of free time, they are more likely to spend it on their smart phone then to practice mindfulness.
This is a recipe for stress, anxiety, and burn out. When we don’t take time to be mindful, it’s easy to forget what’s most important in life.
Finding the present moment can not only improve your mental well-being, it can also improve your physical health as well.
In this article I covered 7 ways to be more present. Here’s a quick recap:
- Shield Yourself from Distractions
- Maintain physical health
- Take care of your mental health
- Meditate Daily
- Organize Your Day
- Celebrate Your Small Wins
- Look on The Bright Side
Finding the present moment can lead to more life satisfaction and fulfilment. Furthermore, It can help you to open your awareness to new possibilities and opportunities.
There are several ways to tap into the present moment. The trick is to find a technique that works for you.
Personally, I recommend mindfulness meditation to most people. It’s an easy technique that can help you access the present moment and strengthen your awareness with practice.
Whichever strategy you decide to use, make sure that you commit yourself to a daily practice. This is the only way to truly develop more presence and awareness in your life.
My Favorite Quote on Being Present
“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.”
-Buddha
