Ask yourself how often you live with the memories of your past or forecasting your future. While you love lingering in such wonderings they, as a matter of fact, are simply illusions, although you do not realize it.

The present alone is not an illusion because it is the only “true” reality, the only situation you can actually experience. Nevertheless, you let it slip away like water between your fingers because you keep yourself too busy rummaging over the past or making plans for the future.

The past is done with, it is over, “kaput”! This does not mean that it should be forgotten or shunned. On the contrary, it must be remembered with respect and gratitude because it provided you with the experiences that brought you to be the beautiful human being that you are now.

It has been a school where you tried, made mistakes, tried again, it provided the environment where you learned and matured. Hats off to the past, then! But you must leave it there, in the showcase that stands in your metaphorical living room. Give it a little dusting now and then, take out a memory once in a while and show it to your guests.

Use it in a conversation among friends, tell your children an anecdote once in a while — but not too often. That is enough! Keeping on thinking and talking about the past makes you waste time and bores your interlocutors to death. If you are not too sure about this, make a quick check and see how thrilled “you” are when others start fishing up memories and go on, and on, and on…

As to the future, frame it like a beautiful picture and hang it on the wall of your imagination. You are aware that it is there, in front of your eyes, you can look at it and think about it every time you wish. You can make plans, give it a little touch-up here and there, according to the changing circumstances.

But you don’t want to spend the rest of your life looking at the picture, seeing a sight that is not even real and, in so doing, lose the opportunity to go out and enjoy a healthy walk in the country, on the beach or... even to the mall for a little, refreshing shopping. Here you can see real stuff, whatever it is.

It is certainly true that we all tend to be lured by imaginary scenarios, that we love to create whole fictitious stories in which we end up believing — well before it is time to start “staging” them. It would be wiser to look at the present with more attention, and start working harder on whatever is your responsibility at the present moment. The time you are living in is already rich as it is, there is no need for you to engage in heroic crusades or to become a supporter of an exalting cause. When you live your life in full consciousness, you have already done enough. When “tomorrow” becomes “today”, only then will you roll up your sleeves and start making your dreams become reality.

The path toward their realization must be walked a step at the time, savoring each meter that you travel, admiring and appreciating every single thing that the surrounding panorama offers to your attention.

This is the way that will allow you to say, “I have lived and I am still living every single moment of my life fully, day by day”. Last, but not least, you won’t have any regrets. You will know that you have carried out your tasks at the right time, that you have not missed any opportunity, that you have done your best, always. Your being “present” to yourself at all times has allowed you to behave as a constantly conscious, no nonsense individual. Don’t you think this should be enough?

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