Recently, I picked up a little book called How Now by Raphael Cushnir which has 100 ways to practice being present, now. At this point, I am sure we have all heard of practicing being present- but we may not understand why this is important or useful. Being present in the moment contributes to your every day happiness and makes you aware of your surroundings and where you are in life.

When you have this awareness you are more tuned in with the actuality of your existence and what you want from life and what you are getting. Beyond that, it helps our minds to let go of expectation and projections that can overwhelm us and are easily put in place when we think about the future.

One way you can practice being present is to make a list of things you want to do or start doing regularly. We all have the best intentions of how we will eat, exercise or interact with the people in our lives, but alas everything is much more easily said (or thought) than done. So, make a list of all these things. Then pick out a few things you can do now. Implement them into your life today! As the weeks go by, add new things to your list and cross off the ones you have done. In this way you create a rolling list that you are actively participating in.

Weeks and months will go by and instead of saying “I was going to do that” you can say “I already did that!” or “I am doing that.”