How to Live in the Moment and Stop Worrying
Life would be so much easier if we knew how to live in the moment. There would be very little or no stress about the future, no anxiety or worry about the past. We could just enjoy the moment and be happy.
So how do we get to that mindset? It may not be always easy, but it certainly is doable.
If you want to live in the moment you must stop your mind from wandering and worrying. Any events that we anticipate to happen in the future can cause us stress and anxiety.
You must also be able to let go of the past and forgive yourself. Things that happened to you in the past, that you wish went differently, can cause you sadness or even depression.
How to live in the moment thus becomes a question of how to let go of the past and stop worrying about the future. In this blog post, we will examine different techniques for focusing your mind on the present and exercises for letting go of the past.
Breathe Deeply
Concentrating on your breathing for a while is a great way to connect yourself to the present moment. Taking a deep breath in and then exhaling slowly engages your body and mind in that single activity, taking your attention away from future or past events.
Breathing with intention also connects with your sympathetic nervous system, also known as the “fight or flight” part of your autonomous nervous system.
In other words, breathing signals your nervous system to calm down, so it is a great way to relieve stress and anxiety. When you are not stressed or anxious, you can better focus on the things happening now.
Make a habit out of deep breathing
If you want to learn how to live in the moment and stop worrying, make a conscious effort to form a habit of deep breathing. We already tend to do this when we are stressed or overwhelmed (you know, a deep sigh), but a good way to form a new habit is to set reminders.
Frame a motivational poster on your wall that says “just breathe”. Write it on post-it notes. Set reminders to your phone and calendar. Write it on your bathroom mirror. Get fridge magnets and spell “breathe” on your fridge.
The more you see the reminders and remember to deliberately stop and breathe deep a couple of times, the more it becomes a habit. As a bonus, it’s very good for your brain too. Your brain needs oxygen and when you learn to breathe deeply you will notice that you are more alert and focused.
There’s a breathing exercise at the end of this blog post that you can try to relieve stress and better connect with the current moment.
Be grateful
Being grateful has many benefits for your well-being and it’s a great tool for learning how to live in the moment. Starting a gratitude practice will help you develop positive thought patterns and break your non-beneficial subconscious thought patterns.
Being grateful for the things you already have will also teach you to be more aware of your surroundings, thus connecting you with the moment.
Feeling gratitude allows you to acknowledge how well things are in your life right now. You can be grateful for things that happened in the past and it’s also a good practice to be grateful for things in advance, but what I suggest is to combine your gratitude practice with the deep breathing practice that we just discussed.
Feel grateful in the moment
Try the following: Close your eyes and take a deep breath in. Hold your breath for a few seconds. Slowly exhale through your mouth. You can even let out an audible sigh if you are somewhere private. Repeat this process three times.
Then open your eyes and notice where you are. Take note of your surroundings and how you feel. Find three things you can be grateful for right at that moment. These can be things from your surroundings or things that you feel inside.
For example, you might be grateful that you have a roof above your head or that you just met some of your friends. Maybe you just feel relaxed and are grateful for that. Anything that comes to mind is the right thing to feel grateful for. There are no wrong answers.
Keep a gratitude journal
The point is to engage the mind in positive thoughts and connect with what’s happening around you right now. This will help you live in the moment and stop worrying about the future or being sad about the past. You are noticing things that are around you now and feeling emotions that are rooted in the current moment.
A good way to practice gratitude is to keep a gratitude journal. Write down some things that you are grateful for right before you go to bed and as soon as you wake up. This will help you start and end the day in a positive mindset.
Of course, the most important thing is to make being grateful a habit and the amount of journaling doesn’t really matter. Just do it until you have developed a habit of being grateful.
As mentioned, you can combine this practice with deep breathing to better learn how to live in the moment.
Increase your awareness
Possibly the most important part of how to live in the moment and stop worrying is to increase your awareness. The more you live “consciously” i.e. not let your mind wander around and stay aware of what’s happening around you, the more you will stay connected with the moment.
Remember: Stress and anxiety are caused by your anticipation of events in the future. Sadness or depression occurs when your mind can’t let go of the past. The more you can live in the moment, the less you will stress or worry.
Increased awareness brings with it a new understanding. You notice things that you did not notice before; your perspective widens. When you start to see the bigger picture of how things in your life work in your favour (they do, it’s just a matter of being aware of this), you will start to feel happier and lose your stress and anxiety.
Practice your awareness
You can practice your awareness by (you guessed it) making it a habit to notice things around you. The practices in this blog post intertwine neatly into one “super-practice” that you can use to start living in the moment and stop worrying.
Use the two tools that we discussed previously. Take a deep breath and notice things around you. This will increase your awareness. Then feel grateful for the things you have at the moment. It’s a super simple but super efficient practice to learn how to live in the moment.
Set reminders to do it and it will eventually become a habit. You’ll learn to relieve stress and connect with the moment. You will also replace negative thought patterns with positive ones by focusing on the good things in your life.
How to live in the moment - exercises
Here are 5 of my favourite exercises that can help you learn how to live in the moment and stop worrying.
They are quite self-explanatory, but I’ve included a link in the ones that may need more explaining, so click on the link to learn more.
1. Deep Breathing
This is simple, but remember that the goal is to make it a habit. Set reminders for yourself so that you remember to stop every once in a while and focus on breathing deep.
- Close your eyes (optional)
- Take a deep breath
- Hold your breath as you count slowly to four
- Exhale slowly through your mouth
- Hold and count slowly to four
- Repeat three times
- Open your eyes slowly and bring your attention to your surroundings and how you feel
It works even better if you time your breathing so that each step takes the same amount of time. Count slowly to four as you inhale, hold, exhale and hold your breath. This signals your nervous system to relax even more.
2. Gratitude
Gratitude is another simple practice and, again, use whatever method works for you just as long as you do it often enough to make it a habit.
I suggest keeping a gratitude journal where you write things down every day for three weeks.
This is the amount of time it usually requires to develop a new habit. Journaling is a great habit in and of itself so you’ll hit two birds with one stone if you journal every day or at least once every week.
For the purposes of living in the moment, I recommend combining your gratitude practice with a deep breathing practice. As mentioned previously, this will help you stop worrying and bring your attention to the positive things that surround you at the moment.
Do your deep breathing practice and then take note of three things around you that you can be grateful for.
3. Awareness
Being aware of things around you will connect you to the moment very efficiently. You can train your mind to focus on the things at hand instead of wandering and worrying about future or past events.
A great way to train your awareness and focus is to meditate. Meditation is a simple practice that has amazing benefits for your mind.
Or you can make a conscious effort to be more aware. Every day make it your intention to notice in your life three things you didn’t notice before. It could be something as simple as graffiti on a wall, something new you learn from reading the news etc.
As usual, I suggest keeping a journal for improved results. Write down three things every day that you didn’t notice before. This will train your awareness.
4. EFT Tapping
As we concluded in this blog post, how to live in the moment and stop worrying comes down to your ability to let go of the past and stop worrying about the future. When you are anxious, your mind anticipates future events.
If you are sad or even depressed, your mind dwells on experiences in your past. Therefore, dealing with your anxiety and grief will connect you to the moment.
One of the best ways to calm your nerves and stop anxiety and worry is to practice “tapping”. It’s a fun and quick practice where you tap with your fingers on certain points on your body while focusing on what’s bothering you.
It’s easy to learn and free to start. My go-to place for all my tapping needs is The Tapping Solution, which I can wholeheartedly recommend (no affiliation).
5. Start a Spiritual Practice
Here’s a final tip that may very well be all you need for learning how to live in the moment and stop worrying.
Start a spiritual practice.
Now, spirituality is not a religious or a magical practice that requires total dedication and discipline.
Spirituality, in simple terms, is anything that helps you connect yourself with your highest truths about life, the universe and everything. When your perception of life shifts (you see “the big picture”), you will understand that there’s really nothing to worry about. Life goes perfectly at every moment.
It may take time to reach that level of awareness, but it will be worth it.
I’ve written a beginner’s guide to spirituality, read it here if you want to learn more.
Conclusion
If you want to live in the moment you must stop your mind from wandering and worrying.
Any events that we anticipate to happen in the future can cause us stress and anxiety.
You must also be able to let go of the past and forgive yourself.
How to live in the moment thus becomes a question of how to let go of the past and stop worrying about the future.
Breathing deeply for a while is a great way to connect yourself to the present moment.
If you want to learn how to live in the moment and stop worrying, make a conscious effort to form a habit of deep breathing.
Starting a gratitude practice will help you develop positive thought patterns and break your non-beneficial subconscious thought patterns.
Being grateful for the things you already have will also teach you to be more aware of your surroundings, thus connecting you with the moment.
Developing your awareness helps you live more “consciously” i.e. not let your mind wander around and stay aware of what’s happening around you.
The more awareness you have, the more you will stay connected with the moment. And the more you can live in the moment, the less you will stress or worry.
Best practices for learning how to live in the moment and stop worrying:
- Deep breathing
- Gratitude
- Awareness
- Meditation
- Tapping
- Any spiritual practice
Disclaimer
The entire contents of this blog are based upon the opinions of the author. It is intended for informational and educational purposes only. The information in this blog is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care professional before trying any of the products or methods based on this content. I cannot guarantee that you will be free of stress, anxiety or depression, or that you will be happy. I simply want to share with you what I have discovered during my twenty years of seeking happiness and what has worked for me may not work for you.
