The past can be a dangerous thing, and so can the future. There is a peculiar gloom that comes with the thought that things used to be better, and that you are going downhill. Conversely, there is a peculiarly elevating feeling from the thought that things are “getting better all the time” as the Beatles say. That’s pretty simple. Most people would probably agree that its better to feel like things are getting better than that things are getting worse (regardless of if they are). However, neither is good, so by default then neither can be bad. Let me explain.

See one of the mind-bending properties of Time is that yesterday never really exists, and tomorrow never comes. Personally it took me a while to figure out what people meant when they said “Time is an illusion.” Does time not move forward? That’s a valid question. Now this is the answer I’ve come to in my mind’s travels. Sure, we may remember things we did, or plan things we will do, and our lives may change giving the impression of flowing time. However, it is never not now, this present moment. We can blab about the tomorrow as much as we want, we can prepare like scouts for the forest, but that trip, that tomorrow, never comes. It is never tomorrow. Tomorrow is always, well, tomorrow.

The same thing applies for yesterday. Yesterday is always yesterday, and is just as ethereal as tomorrow is. Even the yesterday, which seems carved in the stone of history, is actually a malleable dream. Subjectivity and the power of our minds can totally distort memories to conform to a thought pattern. Does anyone ever truly remember something exactly as it happened? It cannot be so because we all have our subjective interpretations of event. The same can be said of the present and of tomorrow, which will be coloured by the observer’s thoughts. Therefore the feeling that things are going better or worse is entirely contingent on the present feeling, on the thought pattern of the now, on the current manipulation of subjectivity.

The truth of the matter is that what we perceive as preparing our tomorrow, or comparing from our past actually all happens in the now. Everything you are doing you are doing right now, and that is all that is tangibly there is. Now is all there ever is. It’s boggling at first. Such a truth comes with the implications that most of us spend our time, our now, the only thing we ever truly have in obsessing on illusions that are as ungraspable as the wind.

But with this truth can also come the relief of the burden of comparing the past, present, and future. It doesn’t matter where you were, where you think you should be, or where you will be because you are here now. That’s it. Once you start realizing this you can step out of the notoriously shifting tide of “I am definitely doing better! …. No wait, now it feels like I’m doing worse.” I’ve tried that ride. I know how it goes, and it doesn’t stop until you choose to stop it, but you can stop it any now you want.

This is at least part of the philosophy of the ever popular “living in the moment” phrase. Although the perennial Facebook status: “The present is a gift, that’s why its called the present <3” is cute, I fear many of the posters are missing the point. Its seems to me that one of the unintended consequences of world wide web access to wisdom is that people read the summing up line, and take it for granted as a hyperlink for insta-knowledge. “I know to live in the moment and all that, but…” say many-a-folk. Call me judgmental, but a lot of those people do not seem to be living the kind of lives they would live if they actually understood that. How many are the students who stress from day one to the last exam? Always studying for tomorrow whilst touting that phrase as life passes by, moment by moment.

Living in the moment is difficult. It requires realization, then concentrated effort. But the paradoxical nature of this truth is that it is truth, and therefore easy to realize. What is difficult is breaking out of the hallucinations of old thought patterns. Now is all there ever is, that is never not so. The only thing that changes is our own minds, our own perception of it. This also means that the power to realize the now is in each of our hands. It is like losing your glasses and looking frantically for them when they’ve been in your hand all along. We need only slow down and feel, and all of us can understand that it was always there and still is.

On the other hand, I am not sure that constant disregarding of tomorrow is necessarily possible. Balance seems to be one of those pesky rules that shows up everywhere in the order of things. But there needs to balance, which necessarily means that sometimes you just have to drop the to-do-lists and throw your hands up in the air like you actually and truly just don’t care.

This kind of presence mindfulness can difficult to discern because its not discussed very seriously in our world. It is merely assumed as a universal truth that everyone understands. (Here’s my attempt to open dialogue!) Unfortunately, such realization might also be discouraged because if people truly, truly lived in the moment no longer would people agree to sell their now for money, a material promise of something nice in the fairy-tale land of tomorrow. I know, I know: that’s a bit extreme. Again, balance is key here just as it is to breathing and eating. Obviously some work needs to be done; we do need to eat after all.

But I sincerely believe that we do not need to work as much as we do – just look to see how the indigenous tribes, how our ancestors did it all with 20 hour work weeks. I don’t think it extreme however to state that: if people realized the now at least partially, there would be a drastic reduction of people slaving away so they can maybe enjoy something, tomorrow, in their retirement. Instead people may profit of the days, their health, their youth, their current situation to a greater extent. They would have less money sure, but despite what some want you to believe we don’t need all this stuff anyways. But of course, such an event would be bad for the economy. We wouldn’t want that now would we?

Finally, it doesn’t matter if you’re doing better or worse, because that’s just a subjective illusion anyways. You’re here now, that’s what matters. It’s not good if you realize that, because that’s meant to happen and it’s just that time, and this is what is happening in this now. Conversely, its not bad if you fail to realize that because that is a lesson as well, and that’s the pulse of the moment. Everything in due time, but always now.

So I invite you to take a minute and observe. What are you doing now? Are you doing what you really want to? If not, if you’re doing work or studying for tomorrow, I invite to stop what you’re doing to breathe deeply and think. Listen to your heart. Then, go do what you actually want right now, its all you have. It doesn’t even have to be for long, just do it for five minutes. Tomorrow will still be tomorrow when you come back, and it will still always be just as far away. Go on; do it. I’m serious. You’re future-self may thank you for it, or maybe not. It doesn’t matter. What I can guarantee is that your present-self is thanking you for it, and that’s all there ever is.