Embracing the present moment

I think sometimes we get into this "waiting to start living" mode almost unconsciously. And so it's valuable to cultivate the sort of mindfulness that helps us recognize whether or not we're allowing ourselves to "lose the present."

Are you waiting to start living? If you develop such a mind pattern, no matter what you achieve or get, the present will never be good enough; the future will always seem better. A perfect recipe for permanent dissatisfaction and non-fulfillment, don't you agree?
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Waiting is a state of mind. Basically, it means that you want the future; you don't want the present. You don't want what you've got, and you want what you haven't got. With every kind of waiting, you unconsciously create inner conflict between your here and now, where you don't want to be, and the projected future, where you want to be. This greatly reduces the quality of your life by making you lose the present.

-- Eckhart Tolle