Happiness is a by-product of being true to ourselves. The fact is, many people are not being true to themselves. They are true to other people, or beliefs and philosophies that do not serve them. In my lifetime, I have spent a great deal of time and energy trying to please other people. In the end, I pleased no one - not even myself - until I dramatically altered my thinking and learned how to live, fully, in the present moment.

Living in the present moment is a habitual way of thinking and acting that must be practised and developed like any other life- affirming skill. If you look at your own life and see the times when you were not happy, chances are that you were upset because you were chewing on the old bones from your past. Perhaps you were also worried about the future. Worrying about the future and chewing on "old bones" from your past have little value to offer you other than to cause you to be upset, anxious or stressed out.

You should think about the future only long enough to see if there is anything you can do in the present moment to make sure your future turns out the way you want it to turn out. The moment your thoughts about the future turn into "worry thought" that is telling you there is nothing you can do about the future, right now! It also tells you that you are living in the future rather than being fully present in the moment of now.

What are the roadblocks to living in the present moment? Our physical bodies always live in the present moment, but often times, our minds live elsewhere. How many times have you been in meeting, physically present, but you found your mind wandering off to other places? How many times have you listened to a speaker and found your mind drifting off to somewhere else? How many times have you had a conversation with someone, but you were not really present with them? These are all incidents of not living fully in the moment.

If we cannot get our minds to be where our bodies are, it causes us to feel pressure and stress. The solution is to bring our minds back to where our bodies are located. If we cannot bring our minds back to our bodies, then I suggest that we take our bodies to where our minds are located. A simple example: Your body is in church, but your mind is out fishing at your favorite stream or lake. If your mind refuses to come back to church, then go to the lake and meet your God there. The moment our bodies and minds are both located in the same place at the same time, we are fully present. And it is only in the present moment where we will find the true happiness we seek.

©2003

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