Being Present: Let's Form the Habit

As a mother, one of my greatest desires is for my kids to know they have a present mom.

I want them to look back on childhood and to know that I was here, in the moment. It’s the same in my marriage. I want Seth to know and feel like I am present in his life, not just getting things done with and for him. Do I do an amazing job at being present every day? Not yet. But a standard Seth and I live by is, if something in our life isn’t working, we figure out what we can do to change it.

Lately, I’ve been thinking and processing a lot on how I can be more present.  Quite a long time ago, I got rid of social media. Do I think social media is bad? Not at all. I just knew that it wasn’t something I had to have, and it was also keeping me from being a present mom to my kids. During the day, I’d check out of life and check in to social media. I may bring it back someday, but for now, it’s something I do without that helps me be more present and in the moment.

I’m also starting to go on silent retreats. In high school and college, I went on a 3-day silent retreat every three months. It’s something that kept me grounded. It reminded me that life was more than “To Do” lists and that the present was a wonderful place to live. I’m bringing this habit back into my life, because I can tell I need it.

FORMING THE HABIT
I want to form a life-long habit of being present. In my life right now, being present is actually difficult. It takes work. But that’s how it is when you are forming a habit, it takes work. You aren’t automatically going to easily wake up at 6am every morning, if you’ve slept till 8am you’re whole life. You’ll need an alarm. You’ll need some outside help. But after a few months of waking up every day at 6am, your body will form a habit. 6am won’t be hard anymore. Actually, you’ll automatically do it.

How about this? What if we form the habit of being present?  What if our normal becomes us being present?  Do we still dream of the future? Do we still reminisce about the past? Yes, but let’s spend most of our time in the present. I want to be known for being that friend, wife, mom, worker, and leader who is present. I want to be a breath of fresh air to people.

What a wonderful way to live life… fully, completely, and wonderfully present.