When will it happen, this sudden shift? It usually comes out of the blue when you face a difficult situation. It is a sort of insight that occurs and from that moment on life looks different.

An important point of a sudden shift in perspective is:

There is no relationship between the “feeling better” aspect of a sudden shift and your external circumstances.

What happens is that you look at the same set of facts in a new way, a different way than you did before. It is a shift in Perspective, not a change in circumstances.

When tough times come in your life, and you can’t change them, what you have to do is change your thinking about the situation to a healthy coping.

So, the bottom line is, nothing has to change in your life in order for you to feel good BUT your thinking!

This leads to our biggest point:

The way you feel is determined by the thoughts you are thinking.

Example—Alice and Ed had been married for 30 years, most of those years were very routine and unsettling, they had arguments and it seemed their love had gone out the window. Then Ed had a diagnosis of terminal cancer and Alice and Ed had a shift in perspective. Their anger faded away and seemed insignificant. They looked at their life differently now and decided to enjoy their present moments.

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The average person has approximately 55,000 thoughts entering and leaving the mind every day. Most just come and then are dismissed.

But if we’re in the habit of thinking negatively, these thoughts seem to stick. We have to dismiss them and replace them with good, positive ones.

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You need to live in the Present to enjoy life. You can’t be tied to the past of think about a negative future which is what we do when we face a difficult situation that can’t be changed.

When you face a situation you can’t control, you must NOT let fear of the future take away from you’re present.

The present is the only life you have. YOU MUST LIVE IN THE PRESENT MOMENT AND ENJOY IT.

Because that’s the only time you can live.

You waste your life thinking about the past or the future.

HOW DO YOU DO IT?

Well, when you understand how your thinking works you will dismiss any thoughts you don’t want.

Concentrate on what you are doing in the here and now.

Life is nothing more than a series of present moments to be experienced one after another.

It’s the only life we have so why squander it with distorted thinking?

Present-moment living means you are choosing to pay attention on what’s happening RIGHT NOW; and you enjoy and appreciate just this moment.

Whenever you feel discouraged and frustrated try to notice how DISTANT you are from the present moment, you are not living your life WHEN YOU ARE OUT OF THE MOMENT!

The only peace you will find is right where you are, IN THE PRESENT, the only place you can live.

When you live in the present, you will notice your fear of the future fades away. You see that worrying about the future is a WASTE OF YOUR LIFE!

Your life is more enjoyable living one moment at a time, one day at a time.

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So, my friend, the choice is yours, live in the present and enjoy the only life you have.

The past and the future are just thoughts, where as you life is RIGHT NOW!

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One last idea I will leave you with and PLEASE remember this at all times:

LIVE YOUR LIFE IN THE PRESENT MOMENT AND BE GRATEFUL THAT YOU HAVE THAT MOMENT!

Also published on Medium.