Did you know that we have between 50,000 – 70,000 thoughts per day? This means that there are between 35 and 48 thoughts running through our heads each minute.
Looking at that astonishing number, you can clearly understand how easy it is to take yourself out of the present, out of this exact moment. A single thought can take you so many places before you even know what happened. So much of our mental energy is dedicated to these thoughts because our brains have been conditioned to continuously harp on the past and project into the future.
This doesn’t mean we should never reflect on anything that has led up to the present or prepare for what may be in our forecast. Instead, we should really understand that both the past and the future are out of our control. Then, and only then, can we free ourselves from the mental restraints we place on ourselves by focusing so much of our energy on anything but the present.
We only have a short period of time on this earth, so we need to make the best of it. We need to embrace the present as much as humanly possible. There will be times when our attention is drawn outside of the moment, but it is up to us, up to me, and up to you, to figure out a way to come back to the here and now. That’s truly where all the magic happens.