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Spiritual gurus highlight the importance of being in the moment, but why should we be in the moment?

Isn’t a person allowed to think of the past? Shouldn’t we think of our memories? Memories of our children being babies and them achieving various development milestones? Our first love, first job, first house?

No. Not all the time. But why?

While I am cooking, my mind is always on overdrive. Mind is a monkey, I am told. It jumps from one thought to another. Controlling one’s thoughts is part of mindfulness. But what happens when we are not meditating?

Say, I am cooking. If we are not careful, the monkey will jump from a positive thought to a negative thought.

If the negative thought isn’t controlled soon enough (17 seconds as per Law of Attraction), it might become a manifestation (meaning thoughts will become a reality). Moreover, the monkey will keep jumping from one small negative thought to a big negative thought and an even bigger negative thought.

An example of a big negative thought is when we relive the grievances we have had with people around us in the past. It could be our parent, sibling, spouse, or boss. Thoughts like: he didn’t do this for me. She should have stood up for me.

In short, we are letting the person hurt us over and over again. A positive thought has become a huge negative thought in a matter of few minutes.

Another example of a negative thought is fear. We all have fears of some sort. Fears keep us away from being the moment. Most fears never come true anyway. Isn’t it better to live for now rather than worry about something that might not ever happen?

Could mindfulness help?

True, meditation will help control the flow of thoughts, but it is up to us to choose the right thoughts for ourselves in the ordinary course of the day. I believe that mindfulness can only teach us how to control our thoughts while we are meditating. While we are doing other activities where our mind is idle, like cooking or walking home from the station, we have to make an effort to control our thought process.

Thoughts that can hurt us, make us sad, or wish that the old times would come back don’t serve a purpose and are best to avoid. Thoughts that make us feel eager to face life are productive, and above all, make us happy should be chosen.

When the monkey (our mind) is about to jump to a negative thought, our mind will warn us—are you sure you want to think about this? If we take the warning, we can divert our mind back to a positive thought; if not, one will plunge into the darkness of negativity.

And it is challenging to come out of.

That’s why I have now trained my mind (by repeatedly following the exercise) that when the first thought of negativity enters my mind, I switch my thoughts straight to something that I am looking forward to (positivity).

Therefore, it would be a good idea to keep a small list of things one is looking forward to. Maybe it is an achievement in a job or a career. It could be your child’s birthday or that you are moving into your own property, or perhaps graduating.

As soon as the thought moves toward negativity, push it back into the light of positivity with an achievement.

Once we are in a positive state, switching our thoughts back to the activity we are doing becomes easy. For example, cooking. Focusing on it helps get us back in the moment.

It tends to be easier to focus on a task at hand (being in the moment) when we are in a positive state of mind.

Negativity, positivity, be in the moment—what’s the big deal in all this?

Remember, I said fear is a negative thought. Now, if we keep thinking about the subject of our fear, we might manifest it (make it a reality). We don’t want that, do we?

The big deal is that our mindset will change once we start training our minds by doing this simple exercise. Suddenly, we will feel bursts of happiness.

Everything will look rosy in our life (even if it is not). Once we start emanating this positive energy, we begin attracting better energies toward us.

No, I am not rehashing the Law of Attraction here; I am sharing a path to make the Law of Attraction work for us.

It is the little thoughts that count and not the big ones.

Life is all about enjoying those little moments and each activity we do, no matter how boring and mundane it is.

Try this exercise of recognizing and being aware of your positive thoughts. If we can differentiate between positive and negative thoughts, we can push the negative thoughts away from us before they become a huge block in our head and ruin our day, our hour, or our dish.

Do share your experiences with me in the comments below.

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