Anxiety. We have all experienced it to a certain extent. I find that those who try the hardest to control their weight or otherwise improve their health through rigid methods are often the ones that have the hardest time doing it. Living in the future or trying to control an outcome creates enormous anxiety and prevents you from living presently. Being mindful about what’s in front of you allows you to use your own wisdom to make choices in your best interest. This creates self-trust, confidence, inspiration, gratitude…and sanity.

As part of our humanity, we are powerless over what the future holds. It’s impossible to have everything go just the way we want it and it seems we have a hard time accepting that reality. However, acceptance is exactly what leads to freedom. Eckhart Tolle has said – “realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have”. The interesting thing about the future is that we can work to create it by focusing on the present. Getting too far ahead of ourselves just makes us feel anxious, while taking it a day, sometimes an hour or a minute, at a time feels much more peaceful, and not only peaceful but effective. By staying present we avoid reacting in a way that could lead to consequences we would rather not have. So while we can’t control the future, we do have power in the present which influences our future.

While this can be applied to many areas of your life, it most definitely applies to meeting your health and wellness goals. Meeting goals requires a lot of patience, which is hard to cultivate when we are feeling anxious about controlling the future. Instead, focus on the 24 hours in front of you and make it the best you can, which will likely change from day to day. That’s the beauty of living in the present – your best is always good enough. Even the smallest actions are steps in the right direction!