Stay Present

Sometimes, we get lost in our thoughts, our hopes, our dreams... so much so that we forget about what we are doing right here, right now, in this moment.

I constantly find myself counting down the days until I return to Toronto for a visit, counting down the days until London, thinking about next week, next month even next year.

Though it's great to set goals to work towards, more often than not, I get caught up in those moments that sometimes I forget to slow down and enjoy here and now.

The other night I had a fairly long conversation with a friend about our hopes and dreams, and eventually he mentioned this whole idea of how great it is to want all those things, but how important it is to enjoy the here and now moments. More importantly, he said to always stay present.

And the whole idea of staying present completely resonated with me. Too many times I'm worried about tomorrow, or next week... forgetting simply about the moments that are here and now.

So yesterday, I went into downtown Victoria and took a walk down Dallas Rd, which basically boarders the ocean... it's absolutely beautiful. Essentially, I took what he said to heart and realized, sometimes you just have to put all your goals and aspirations aside and realized how grateful and blessed you are to be here.

So as I sat by the ocean and listened to the waves crash on the shore, the whole idea of staying present really came true. I couldn't have enjoyed that moment more. The sun, the ocean breeze, the smell of salt was in the air, it was sort of surreal.

Even though not all moments in life are as great as some that I had yesterday, I guess it's important to remind yourself that each of them go hand in hand in leading you to your next chapter.

Above all, remember to embrace here and now and to stay present, because you never know what you might miss out on if you don't stop to smell the roses....