The ultimate form of time travel is consciously pulling yourself back into the present.

People have been daydreaming about time travel since time began. There are whole genres of film and literature devoted to this daydream, and to exploring all the twisted implications of stepping into the past or future⏤the delightful anachronisms, the unintended consequences, the redemptive do-overs, the righted wrongs.

Who hasn’t fantasized about going back in time and getting another shot at something (or someone)? Who hasn’t fantasized about going into the future and getting one favorable outcome after another? When the mind is allowed to wander, it rarely stays put. It quickly abandons today in search of a better yesterday, which doesn’t exist, or a better tomorrow, which isn’t guaranteed.

As fun as it is to daydream, the truth is that for every delightful voyage into the past or future, there are as many agonizing ones. Like water finding, and falling into, the very smallest of cracks, the imagination always seems to find the ‘Should Haves’ and the ‘What Ifs’ in every situation. The truth is that most travels through time are journeys of regret or fear. You travel to the past and visit the things you did that you wish you could do differently, the things you said that you wish you could take back, and the turning points that you wish you had recognized as crossroads. You travel to the future and visit the things that could go wrong, the things that could fall apart, and the things that may never happen. It is better to remain in the present, where regret and fear find much less soil to take root in. 

With all the different times and dimensions that the mind can wander off to, learning how to come back to the present moment is a powerful skill well worth developing. This radical action of leaving the past and the future, and returning to the moment at hand, has the power to transform anxiety, worry, fear, regret, shame, and disappointment into serenity, contentment, and peace.

Ask yourself: In all the days you’ve walked this earth, how many have you actually spent in the present? Of all the days you have left, would you like to live the rest of them one single day at a time? Would you like to enjoy today, uncluttered and unclouded by yesterday and tomorrow? 

If yes, welcome to this very moment. It is your entire life in a single instant. Right here and right now is everything you know and everything you need. The future may or may not come, and the past is sealed away and set in stone. This present moment, however, can last forever⏤if you let it.

Copyright 2023 Kesel Wilson (entirely, 100% human-created)

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