One motivation to keep us trying to live in the moment is the awareness that if we are not in the moment we are living in another time, in someone else's life; neither is as satisfying or beneficial or serving purpose as our own time, our own life. If we examine this we realize how negative and closing down it is.
When we are thinking of the next job and fearing what it might entail, or thinking about our behaviour at a past event and fearing what people thought of us (and how incredible it is that we spend so much time in such thinking!) - it is just that - thinking and fearing.
Conversely, if we are recalling an enjoyed vacation or thinking about a pleasant forthcoming event the body as well as the mind is engaged and it is feeling that has taken precedent.
We can't just think about the moment. Try it. We may start by thinking, "I am thinking about this moment," but feeling about the moment happens simultaneously and we are here and now. The flip side is that feeling the moment (which is the essential tool of meditation) brings experience of the moment, of the here and now. And life opens............
(William Bloom 's book The Endorphin Effect zeros in on the why and how this happens in a nicely practical way)
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