Live a Happy Life by Living in the Moment
How to Find Happiness Through Reflection and Planning
May 1, 2009 Christin Aitchison
You are the maker and the keeper of your own happiness. There are many ways to achieve a state of happiness, but perhaps the most important step to take is to start living in the moment. Living in the moment can also be called mindfulness, which is defined as “the trait of staying aware (paying close attention to) your responsibilities.” These responsibilities should be defined as what is most important right now.
What is Living in the Moment or Mindfulness?
Living in the moment requires you to keep your mind absorbed in the present moment, noticing the details and nuances of your actions. In theory, it allows you to receive feelings of joy and happiness because you are present right now. There is no internal distraction or dialogue pulling your feelings and focus away.
How Reflecting on Each Day Will Help You Achieve Happiness
Often people are distracted by the moment because they are caught in the past. It is critical to consider it, learn from it and let it go.
According to The Psychology of Enhancing Human Performance; The Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) Approach, written by Frank L. Gardener, PhD, ABPP and Zella E. Moore, PsyD [Springer Publishing, 2007], people handle a new situation based on a previous similar experience.
If the experience was perceived as negative, then the next experience will be negative. This creates a situation were one doesn’t create an alternative rule to make it better for the next time. Most importantly, this behavior does not lead to actions that allow for personal success and happiness.
Set aside a time at the end of the day to reflect on it. It is important to introspect about your feelings about events and make peace with them. If you don’t, it will distract you in the form of internal dialogue later and take you away from the moment and your happiness.
How Planning Each Day Will Help You Achieve Happiness
To help to keep your focus in the moment and to sort through the external pressures of life’s obligations, it is important to plan for the future. Whether it is as simple as chores that need to be done, or something as complex as a work project due, the exercise of scheduling and prioritizing obligations will free your mind to be in the moment and keep you mindful of where and what you are doing. This can open you up to fully enjoy your moments and make each experience happy.
Set aside a time at the beginning of each day to lay out what your responsibilities and needs are. Plan, as best as you can, when and how each item will be addressed. The challenge is understanding what is important right now. With the pressures of a career, family and numerous other endeavors, it is easy to get caught in the trap of importance versus urgency. Per “Living in the Present Moment-Importance vs. Urgency,” dated January 19, 1998 and found on About.com, things that are “important” are the things that you value. Issues that are “urgent” are things that other people tell you are important.
Ask yourself these basic questions:
- What must be done today for you?
- What must be done today for your family?
- What must be done today for your career and outside interests?
- What is “important” and what is “urgent?”
- What, if anything, on your list, is neither important nor urgent?
Through the mindful processes of reflection and planning in you daily life, you can open the door to the experience of living in the moment and attain a state of true happiness.
Through reflection, you eliminate internal distractions and dialogue. By planning, you free your mind of obligations by giving each task its own defined moment, thus eliminating stressful thoughts of what must be done.
Living in the Moment
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