Aggressively in the Now

September 22, 2026

Staying in the moment is the only way to have peace.

Humans are worriers. We worry about what happened in the past, and we worry about what will happen in the future. We carry guilt from past mistakes, and we plan for future possibilities that may never happen and stress about it in the process.

It's a lot. And we do it to ourselves.

I've been slowly waking up to this fact. I mean, I know this in theory, but it's hard not to get sucked into this kind of thinking. It's for this reason that I've been practicing a new kind of mindfulness: aggressively staying in the now.

Aggressively because whenever I sense my mind starting to wander too far back or forward, I force it back into the present by repeating to myself what I'm currently doing.

For example, if I'm washing a plate, I narrate that process to myself. Often times out loud as it forces my brain to snap back into the present moment.

A Lighter Feeling

I feel lighter when I do this, like the burdens of the past and future just melt away because they simply don't matter. I'm not at the point where I can maintain this feeling indefinitely, but even the time I do, it's a welcomed reprieve.

And that's the whole point: to rest the mind. Sitting with what is happening right now unburdens my head. Often times, I don't even realize I have so much swirling through my mind until I do this exercise and I finally feel a bit of calm.

#mindfulness