Live in the Moment – A Cue from the Dogs

Dogs are the perfect reminder to each of us to live in the moment. The “squirrel” joke comes to mind. The dog is walking along, paying attention to the task at hand, and all of a sudden “SQUIRREL!”. While we don’t need to be quite that in the moment (it might be a bit dangerous on the roads) we can take a cue from our dogs and live more in the now.

Have you ever been someplace amazing on vacation and find yourself thinking about having to go back to work or real life? Why do we do that? Why do we work ourselves up for months for this experience and then not even truly be present when we’re LIVING it. And while I LOVE Instagram can you truly say you are in the moment when the moment is being filtered through the screen on your phone?

So what should we do? I’m trying to make a conscious effort to enjoy the moments. I use the method of taking snapshots in my mind. My husband is on the floor with our girls fooling around and we’re all laughing. I think this is an amazing moment and ‘click’, I capture a mental snapshot of the whole experience. This process not only provides great memories to be enjoyed later, but by actually acknowledging the current moment I feel more fully immersed in it.

The same concept can be used for big exciting events too. I first started trying to take mental snapshots during my wedding. Everyone said it would go by super fast and I would get swept away and they were mostly right. However by remembering to take mental snapshots I slowed things down and got to enjoy our wedding even more. I now have these snapshots to go back to where I can relive the excitement and joy of walking down the aisle.

Give it a try! The next time you are in any situation, big or small, and truly enjoying yourself. Stop and think “I want to remember this, this moment, these feelings, this view.” Put your phone down, forget about tomorrow and LIVE right then and there. And don’t forget to look out for that occasional squirrel!