The Now

Daily Meditation — 5/15/2022

Every bite of food could be the one you choke on.
Every mile you drive could be the last before a horrific wreck.
Every minute could be your final before an aneurism.

Looking down upon the world from the beyond, how much time would you like to say you spent mourning the past hours?
How much time would you like to say you spent scheming for the future?

Nostalgia is one of the worst drugs we have.
Dwelling in the past — the desire to relive that which has gone — is beyond masturbation.

Take the past in the joyous, fleeting memories, then come back above the surface of time.

Overplanning, on the opposite side, is nearly as bad a drug.
Living in the future — that which has never been promised to you — is also masturbation.

Look forward to the future and be excited for it, but live in the now with intention.

As yourself…

“Am I living in a manner consistent with who I desire to be?”

If the answer is “No,” then surely any future version of you is doubly unsure.

Now ask, “What behaviors must I change, now, to be who I should be?”

Then change those behaviors.

These behaviors can only be changed hour by hour, day by day within our years. One doesn’t wake up one day weighing 300 pounds all at once. They make tens-of-thousands of poor decisions in the millions of passing nows… accumulating into the morbid obesity.

Walking a hundred steps more, today, than yesterday.
Waking 10 minutes earlier.
Putting down your device for a minute longer, now, to listen to the sounds of nature.

Mastery of who you are in this moment is mastery of all of you, honoring your past and bowing down to your future.

Follow for daily philosophical meditations.

These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”