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Alan Watts: Measure Life by Degree of Presence
The more I exercise it, the stronger it becomes.
Wherever I’m, I must be there in mind, body and soul. However short or long, my experience in real time is how I live. I must live it and be fully in it. That’s how I truly experience life. But we often forget that in the moment. Our regrettable past and uncertain future are too strong to let go. We’ve almost reduced life to two realities: the past and the future. Life unconscious activity has become the measure of a good life. Even when we make time for immersive experiences, we are too occupied with the past or the future to appreciate reality as it’s happening in the moment.
I like what philosopher Alan Watts once said, “Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.” When we stop being conscious, presence quickly becomes our past. Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle said, “If your mind carries a heavy burden of the past, you will experience more of the same. The past perpetuates itself through lack of presence. The quality of your consciousness at this moment shapes the future.”
When I hold on to old pain, regrets, or mistakes, they keep repeating in my life. I see the same patterns, feel the same emotions, and make the same choices. The past becomes my present.
