"You're always in the present, never the past or future"

You can remember the past. You can imagine the future. But you can only exist in the now. Every single moment of your life, from birth to death, happens in the present.

Even when you're thinking about the past, you're thinking about it now.

Even when you're planning for the future, you're planning now.

The past and future only exist as concepts in your present mind. You've never experienced yesterday, and you'll never experience tomorrow. Only now, always now, forever now.

Here's the weird part: the present moment is the only thing that's permanent. The past is gone, the future hasn't arrived, but the present is always here. You've been in "now" your entire life.

You can't experience the past or future, yet your entire life is shaped by them:

• Your past creates your memories and identity
• Your future drives your goals and fears
• But neither actually exists except as thoughts in the present

We spend so much time:

• Replaying conversations that are over
• Rehearsing scenarios that haven't happened
• Regretting decisions we can't change
• Worrying about events that might never occur

All of this happens now, in the only moment that actually exists.

If the present is all that exists, then:

• Your past mistakes don't exist (except as current memories)
• Your future failures don't exist (except as current fears)
• The only thing real is what's happening right now

This can be liberating or terrifying:

Liberating: You can always start fresh. The present is a clean slate.

Terrifying: This moment is all you have. It's fleeting and you can't hold it.

This is why meditation focuses on the present. Not because the present is special, but because it's the only thing that's real. Everything else is mental time travel.

You are immortal in the present. You've never left it, and you never will. From your perspective, the present lasts forever—it's just constantly changing content.

The now you experienced 10 years ago and the now you're experiencing reading this are the same eternal now, just with different scenery.

You are trapped in an eternal present, experiencing an ever-changing moment. Welcome to consciousness.