Are You Present In Your Own Life?

Feeling fully alive in the moment

By Borchee on iStock (image licensed by author)

Being present in your own life is one of those phrases so overused it is meaningless to most people. So many books written on this subject, forever on the lips of every pathetic life coach, uttered by younger generations as they head to a beach to sit and drink, telling everyone I just need time to be present in my own life, again, a phrase neither understood nor correctly used by those swearing that is how they live.

I studied the concept of being present for years, but while I thought I understood it intellectually, and at times felt I lived it for a few hours, I eventually learned I was never close.

Being present isn’t just a mind game, it is a holistic concept where every particle of you is alive in the moment, where your mind, body, all senses and even spirit are committed knowing everything that happens to you can only happen once, and to live at a higher, more aware level, you need to learn to savor the uniqueness of your own life.

Toward the end of my ten-year run as a ski instructor I finally felt what it is like to be so alive in a moment you become hyperaware of who you are, where you are, and who is around you. We had a tiring day during the busiest weeks of March. Two of my supervisors met me as I skied off the lift, yelled follow us, and we…