Cultivating Happiness-How to Live in the Moment

Living in the Moment:

Living in the moment improves our happiness, mood, reducing stress and anxiety. It is a fundamental part of the Happiness-Formula. But it’s hard to live in the moment, especially when you are dwelling on past and/or negative things, or worrying about the future. Either way, when you do that, you are either living in the past or future, but not in the moment.

Why Why Living in the Moment is a Good Thing

When you live in the present, you are more peaceful and grounded. You are thus much more likely to notice the good things around you, rather than letting them slip past you.

How to Start Living in the Moment
Learning to live in the moment isn’t that hard, but it will likely take some time to become comfortable with some of the constructive practices.

Small, Sweet Delight
Learning how to slow down, notice and appreciate, and really savor, relish-in, absorb in a delicious way, There are things that you can easily do to learn how to slow down and relish life a little more often.

Daily Rituals
Create moments of enjoyment in your life and day. This doesn’t have to be a big deal. For example, really slow down and enjoy the first morning coffee, add another block or two to an afternoon stroll, take a few minutes to play with the cats or dog. Regardless of what it is, slow down long enough to enjoy the moment, let it sink in.

Less Is More, taking it easy on the Multi-Tasking
Being able to focus on one thing at a time allows you the full benefit full impact of living in the moment. You really can’t be living in the moment if you are focusing on savoring a tasty meal while having the tv on in the background. To get everything out of the moment, minimizing distractions and focusing on one thing will help a lot in getting the full positive benefits.

Smell the Roses
Everyone knows the saying ‘stop and smell the roses’. Well, it turns out that doing just that, meaning slowing down long enough to appreciate something, really does improve our happiness. It is a luxury to slow down these days, most people have very busy schedules, but nevertheless, consider slowing down long enough to luxuriate in the moment. If you then share these experiences with others, you’ll have even more positive impact from these moments.

Happy Moments
Replaying happy memories and experiences leads to positive feelings and emotional. But it also has a reinforcing effort. Replaying happy moment recaptures and refreshes a past moment, bringing it alive again momentarily, and thus revisiting the pleasure in it memory.

Meditation Works
Yup, meditation really does work. Why? Because, it is an intentional practice of focusing in on the experience of a moment, which results in slowing down and so being able to relish in the positive impact of these moments.

Mindfulness Meditation
Mindful meditation is a practice which really assists in learning how to deliberately live in the moment. Very basically, meditation teaches the brain a full ways to slow down. The effects are decreased negative thinking, reduced anxiety and depression and improved mood. Meditation looks to help increase levels of joy, enthusiasm and contentment.

Body Scan
Like progressive muscle relaxation, you can scan your body in muscle groups. However, rather than tensing-then-relaxing, simple become aware of the experiences of each muscle group. That’s it. Really.

Walking the walk
This idea is to be mindful during a walk. Become more thoughtful and mindful of each step, the rhythm of your stride, the bounce in your step, the colours of your surroundings, the sounds around you, etc. Here it is about tuning into surrounding environment.

Enjoying every bite
This one is especially good for those who enjoy food and eating. Along the same themes of slowing down and savoring, apply this idea to every bite of food you eat. Take time to enjoy the experience of every morsel.