Live in the Moment

Life unfolds in the present. But, it seems the present can easily slip away without us even noticing what we just missed. We are always worrying about what comes next, or what we have to get off our to do lists, and on and on. I find this is especially true for me when I am with my children. Instead of just enjoying the moment with them, I often find myself checking my blackberry, or sneaking in the laundry or stealing peeks of a magazine or thinking of all I have to do once I get them all to bed, and how I have to wash their hair tonight, and wash their towels, and order new shoes...you get the picture. There are definitely times when I do feel "in the moment," but I would like to increase my ratio of being in the moment versus not.

I recently watched my children conduct a very involved imaginative play game with their stuffed animals and I realized that they are the best examples of being in the moment. They were not thinking about what happened at school, or what they were going to eat for dinner. When my daughter took a certain animal from my son he was upset and started to cry, and in that moment that was all he cared about. And, when we straightened out the fight, he went on happily with play and didn't hold a grudge.

I realized that my children are a great source of inspiration for me to leverage as I begin my pursuit of living in the moment. I do believe the world we leave in today makes it incredibly challenging to just be with our thoughts instead of pushing them away or holding onto them. I know that takes a tremendous amount of practice. However, I do believe that this is a challenge worth pursuing because it is my life and I do not want it to pass me by, nor do I want to look at pictures in ten years of my children and not remember enough about what we were doing, or what stages they were in, or what our family dynamic was like in that moment in time.

This is an original NYC Mom Blog Post.