I realize this may not be the nicest title for a blog post but it came out of a conversation I had with my daughter this week.  I really liked her honesty in the conversation and the title came from her mouth (so I’m off the hook!).

I had been doing some reading on coaching and was processing with her some of what I had been thinking about.   One of the things was about learning to live in the moment.   We interpret the events of our lives internally.  Some of us spend a lot of time in the internal world.  As a result we struggle to live in the moment. We are constantly unpacking events, thinking about what is next or reliving the past.  We can spend so much time doing this that we miss out on what is here and now.  It is hard to focus and just be.

We become worried about the future and consumed by what if. Or we constantly revisit choices we made and live with regret.  As I was talking to my daughter about it she said that was exactly what she does and as a result of worrying about her future she was stressed and when she thought about decisions that she had made that had led her to where she is she feels ‘pissed’.

I think this all has an impact on our joy. We become discontent because we aren’t who we thought we should be. We aren’t living up to our full potential, etc.  Our own thoughts condemn us.   It takes time and effort to free ourselves from this habit of living in the past or the future.

Jesus tells us to consider the lillies.  Stop and smell the flowers we might say today. Look at the reality around us.  “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or many not happen tomorrow.” (Matthew 6:28 The Msg)

It isn’t easy to give our attention to right now.  Even as I write this email notifications are popping up and fading in the corner of my screen.  My mind is flooded with things I should or could be doing.  At the end of the day when I lay in bed and think about the day I can be stressed about what didn’t get done or pissed about the choices I made.  Or I can let it go and attend to where God was at work in my day and find consolation in knowing that there is an alternative to stressed or pissed.