The past doesn’t matter. Sure, your past affects where you are in life now, but you can’t live in it. Mistakes you’ve made, people that have hurt you -- they are all things of the past. Sometimes we get stuck in the past because we can’t let people or feelings go. We live each day with regrets or asking “what ifs,” wondering how our life might be different if we could change things that already happened. But what if you miss something new and wonderful because you can’t let go of your past?

The future doesn’t matter either. You can dream about it, you can work towards it, but in the end, you can’t live in it. We get so caught up in trying to create our perfect life that we convince ourselves that we can control our present to create a perfect future. We forget to enjoy what life is giving us in the moment, because we are too focused on how it might affect us later. But what if you don’t see something amazing that life has put right in front of your eyes?

The present is the most important thing in your life. Who you’re with, how you act, why you’re laughing or crying, what you’re doing right now? It all matters. Because you ‘re living in the present. How you felt 10 months ago or how you might feel in five years can’t change how you feel right now in this moment. Only what you do in the present will ever affect that. But so often we don’t remember to live in the moment, and we miss many of the beautiful things that are in our lives right now.

We forget what it means to live in the moment, because we think that our past and our future is what determines who we are and how we feel and what happens to us. But all of these things actually come from living in the moment.

Life should be about who you’re with now, not who you lost or who you might find later. Enjoy the friends and relationships you have right now, and forget any that are in the past or that could be in the future. Life should be about what you’re doing now, not the mistakes you made before or worrying about things that haven’t happened yet. Life should be about feeling blissfully happy, despite having old reasons to be sad or being scared of what the future holds. Life should be about enjoying everything and everyone that comes into your life just for the sake of knowing you’re alive. Life should be about living in the moment. So stop focusing on the past and the future; turn to the present and live.