embracing the present moment Quotes

There is no past we can bring back by longing for it. There is only an eternal now that builds and creates out of the past something new and better.

The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.

Happiness can only exist in acceptance.

The time to show up fully for life is right now, whatever the circumstances.

Reality is apparent when one ceases to compare.

To practice Zen or the Martial Arts, you must live intensely, wholeheartedly, without reserve - as if you might die in the next instant

Become more and more innocent, less knowledgeable and more childlike. Take life as fun - because that's precisely what it is!

Your life is right now! It's not later! It's not in that time of retirement. It's not when the lover gets here. It's not when you've moved into the new house. It's not when you get the better job. Your life is right now. It will always be right now. You might as well decide to start enjoying your life right now, because it's not ever going to get better than right now-until it gets better right now!

Expect nothing. Today: that is your life.

Expect the most wonderful things to happen, not in the future but right now.

Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the future.

The past is gone, the future is not here, now I am free of both. Right now, I choose joy.

Surrendering means non-desiring.

If you're having difficulty coming up with new ideas, then slow down. For me, slowing down has been a tremendous source of creativity. It has allowed me to open up -- to know that there's life under the earth and that I have to let it come through me in a new way. Creativity exists in the present moment. You can't find it anywhere else.

Whatsoever you can be you are. There is no goal. And we are not going anywhere. We are simply celebrating here. Existence is not a journey, it is a celebration. Think of it as a celebration, as a delight, as a joy! Don't turn it into a suffering, don't turn it into a duty, a work. Let it be play.

Yesterday is gone and tomorrow has not yet come; we must live each day as if it were our last so that when God calls us we already, and prepared, to die with a clean heart.

Whatever happened in the past doesn't really matter anymore to us right now.

The only thing we can control is what we do in the present. The more we replay yesterday, the further we get from today's opportunities. And the further away we move from opportunities, the tougher the road is to get back. Opportunities never look as good coming as they do going, and they wait for no one. We need to be highly attentive to spot them. And we must be focused on our present capabilities, not past regrets.

To practice Aikido fully you must calm the spirit and go back to the origin.

We live one day at a time and scratch where it itches.

I don’t think of dying, I think of being here now.

There's a point when you have to stop fightin' the whole world.

A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.

Let go of what you can't control. Channel all that energy into living fully in the now.