Live in the Moment and My New Time Machine

I said to myself, "enjoy this moment because it will be your last..."

And it was. It was the last time I ever experienced that moment.

You see I've invented a time machine. Yes, hard to believe, but true.

And guess what? There are just three problems with my time machine that need ironing out before I release it to the time machine market.

They are:

1) It only travels forwards in time.

2) It only travels at the same speed as everything else does outside of the time machine.

3) Once you travel forward in time, you cannot go back.

If you have not guessed already, it is essentially a card board box with the words "time machine" scribbled on the side of it.  (Note: This is a reference to a Demetri Martin joke. He is probably my favourite comedian. Look him up! :)

Bar eBay, where a sucker subscribes every second, I do not think anyone will buy it.

Essentially because everyone is travelling forward through time in the time machine called life and they don't need my cardboard box. It's like selling ice-cubes to Inuits who own an ice-cube making factory.

You may be thinking "How very philosophical (or confusing) of me" right about now. And then you'd be thinking, "Oh, how did he know I was thinking that?" And then you might start getting paranoid as you begin wondering how I know what you're thinking.

In which case I would answer, "Yes I did just read your mind, and I can see all your dirty secrets. I know you hide your dirty dishes in the oven when your in-laws come to visit. And I know you decide upon the scientific-validity of horoscopes only after you've read your prediction each week."

Okay, so after you are over the shock of having your mind exposed to this mind-reading, time-traveling blogger, I will get to the point.

The point is to do with the problem behind curtain three. That was the: Once you travel forward in time, you cannot take that time back.

This problem faces everybody in the entire world as far as I'm aware - and I'm about to start an awareness campaign called "Save the Moment". It's catch line will be "A moment dies... every moment. But you can give that moment the attention it deserves before it passes."

And I'll include a picture of a moment with a frown and distant eyes, glassed with tears.

Back to my article. Thing is, most people I know (including me) do not savour each moment for what they are even though they know they'll never EVER see it again.

Instead, we usually spend these dying moments thinking about our affairs with other times, in either the future or the past, while the current moment is crying, paws stretched out through the bars of a van that is taking it to be put down.

And my parents didn't even tell me the moment was going to be put down until I asked after it, leaving me a scar for life... wait a second, that was my dog, not the moment. But case in point. There I was again living in a different moment that has long passed.

So what do I suggest? I suggest you give each moment the respect it deserves and truly live in it. If it's a happy time, soak up the happiness. Be completely present in the happiness.

If it sucks, realise that it will pass, and don't bring regrets of the past or worries of the future up. If you're fully present in the moment, and don't bring up the past or dream up horrible futures, you'll notice the moment isn't that bad and it'll pass quicker.

You'll also realise how often you waste great times. You'll catch yourself thinking things like "oh, I can't wait to come here and do this again... when can I get here next?". What?!? You are there now, and yet instead of soaking it up, you're taking the enjoyment away by wondering when the next time will be that you can have an IDENTICAL experience. Talk about crazy talk.

Give your complete focus to only what is happening this very exact second, as often as you can, and you'll actually find life becomes more enjoyable. You'll also find you don't miss the important things in life. I'm off to go enjoy this moment. Talk later.

Note: By living in the now, you don't need to give up on your future goals, but reframe your mind. Enjoy where you are in the journey towards your goal because when you've reached that goal you'll: a) have another goal, b) wasted all the time between goal setting and achieving, and c) look back at the time you're experiencing right now with fondess as a "time in your life" - so why don't you enjoy that "time in your life" while you're in it!

Note 2: You also don't need to never think of the past (double negative translator: it's alright to sometimes think of the past).  But try to only remember past events that make you genuinely happy when you remember them.  And place little importance on what actually happened because it no longer exists and the way you remember it is so subjective that it really only ever existed like that in your head anyway.

"There exists only the present instant... a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday nor any tomorrow, but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence."

Meister Eckhar (c. 1260 – c. 1327)