Hi, welcome back to

your Daily Mindfulness.

In today's session, we're going to

talk about why now is the future.

So here's a quote by Mark Williams

who says, "Now is the future

that you promised yourself last

year, last month, last a week.

Now is the only moment

you ever really have.

Mindfulness is about waking up to this."

This quote makes me think of another quote

I heard from Jon Kabat-Zinn who says,

"This is the future of all the previous

thoughts you ever had about the future.

You're in it.

You're already in it.

What's the purpose of all of this living.

If it's only to get someplace else.

And then when you're there,

you're not happy anyway, you

just want to be someplace else."

So this is the future of all

the previous thoughts you've

ever had about your future.

There's something about that,

that the first time I heard it,

it really stopped me in my tracks.

In the same way that Mark Williams quote

does, where it's just very simply the

acknowledgement that we have all of

these thoughts throughout our life of

once I get there, or once this happens,

or life is just around the corner, that

create this feeling of like leaning

into the next moment, that there's

going to be some sort of arrival.

And you can explore for

yourself, even right now.

Like what might you be waiting for,

expecting to get to that once you

do get it, the pay raise or the

move or getting into college or

getting the job or the relationship.

It's like, once I get that,

then that'll be my refuge.

Whatever the story is, we're conditioned

to think we'll arrive in some future

moment where we can finally relax

and we'll have that happiness.

But it's important to reflect

on how this thought pattern has

been with us for a long time.

Have you not believed this previously

about moments that have already come

and gone, where you thought, you know,

once I get there, but then you did get

there to some extent, and now you're

still kind of on that treadmill.

This is something that we

work with as human beings.

These are the neuroses that we

have built into us that can keep

us leaning into the next moment.

And it's not to say future thinking and

designing your life is not important.

It's very important.

But we just have to be careful to not

miss all of the moments along the way.

This is a practice.

And as always, meditation

does help us do it.

But you can bring more of this

awareness into your life and just notice

that feeling of once this happens.

What if it's already happening?

What if this moment of your life was

worth your presence right here right now?

What would it be like to

take that relationship?

Thank you for your practice.

Let's settle in for today's meditation.