The single most important skill to enjoy life

Every day Mark & I become a little more settled and familiar with living on the road.  While our location may change every few days, our days generally consist of the same thing.  Cooking, cleaning, working, paying bills, running errands, walking the dog, surfing the web.  Quite similar to any average day spent in a traditional house with one notable difference.  When your surroundings are constantly changing, you do everything you can to soak up that moment in time.  You become fiercely present, in an effort to remember that place, to burn the view in to your memory or the smell or the people or the food.

 

Every moment in life is fleeting.  Our lives can be completely turned upside down at the flip of a switch.  Yet, it sometimes feels impossible to remember this when living a life of routine.  It becomes so easy to take things for granted when every day is exactly like the one that came before it.  The volatility of life is understood but not truly appreciated.

 

So now, with our surroundings changing regularly, I spend so much more time appreciating the moment.  Knowing that this moment in time, in this place, I may never experience again.  I stop everything I’m doing, without question and watch the sunset.  I sit by a fire and stare at the stars.  I sit in stillness just to breathe it all in.  Things I never, ever did when living in a house.  The beauty of practicing that kind of presence is that it quiets the monkey brain’s desire to dwell on the past or worry about the future.  Being present is the single best way to ground us and remind us that right now is all that really matters.  Soon enough, right now will be a memory and you’ll wish you would have appreciated it more.

I had no idea when setting out to live on the road that it would hone my ability to live in the moment.  A practice that brings peace and contentedness in a way that nothing else can.  And it doesn’t take money or talent or a home on wheels to do it.  It simply takes the desire to get more life out of your days.

 

And once you begin to practice being present, you’ll see that it might be one of the single greatest skills we could learn to enjoy life.

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By Michele

Michele

Hi, I'm Michele, a nomadic wedding photographer and lover of the great outdoors. I live on the road full-time and document my adventures daily. This is my personal blog where I share and record my thoughts on living simply and intentionally with less stress and more joy. Check out my wedding and portrait photography at http://www.oncwest.com

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