I believe that doing this one thing can change your life.

It is a practice. It is a state of mind.

It’s a place and space you hang out in.

And just like everything else, this “practice” takes practice. The more you practice the easier it gets.

If you commit, you have the potential to change your “just okay” to awesome–establishing a new normal.

Here are the possibilities:

You’ll be happier
You’ll be kinder
You’ll be healthier
You’ll have more time
You’ll accomplish more
You’ll feel better
You’ll be joyful
You’ll be peaceful

So what is this ONE thing?

Being in your HERE or NOW, also known as being PRESENT.

May sound like nothing…Easy right? Wrong. Below are list of scenarios that you can use to stop and look at where you are reeling yourself back into the moment.

1) DINE-a-LING: When you are out to eat with friends and family, where is your cellphone? Is it at an arms reach so that you can answer ever ring, beep, buzz and zing. Are you anxiously waiting to see who contacts you next, while missing out on the smiles across the table?

2) THERE but NOT THERE: You move about at the gym, pushing-pulling-elliptcalling around. Are you are rushing and going through the motions while cycling through your to-do-list?

3) SWALLOWING WHOLE: What do you do while your eating? Do you inhale your food so fast that you barely chew? Do mindlessly eat while watching the news? How much are you actually tasting or are you tasting none of it because you are anxious about if he’s going to call tonight.

4) LEAVING YOURSELF IN DISH-STRESS: While you are at your kid’s baseball game, that stack of dishes you left in the sink pops into your head. “How the heck am I going to get to that tonight?” Before you know it your little superstar is on second base and you missed the whole thing.

7) OOPSIE: Your friend pours out her heart to you and all you can reply is, “I’m sorry, did you say something?”

8) ANXIOUS ABOUT THE FUTURE: What are you focusing on? What are you thinking about? Are you thinking about a future event that may or may not actually happen? Are you caught up in what if’s and so worried about “it” that you aren’t really experiencing what is happening right now?

9) USELESS WORRYING: Worry is of absolutely no use, but you know that anyway. No outcome ever changed because YOU worried, so drop it. You may even find that a large percent of what you worried about, never even happened.

Honestly evaluate yourself.

Think of personal situations where you find yourself “any and every” where else but HERE. However, remember that when you are dwelling on the past, or worried about the future, your body is living HERE without you in it…What a waste!

The place of joy, peace, and real living is here NOW.

Share your discoveries about your presence and how showing up differently makes a difference with in the comments below. And be sure to go and get free online cooking lessons with healthy recipes at iCookNaked