“When I'm sad or worried, it's so hard to stay in the here and now”. This is perhaps the most persistent misconception about mindfulness.
The important word in the phrase "to live here and now" is "to live”. “Live” is the verb, “here and now” is an adverb. The “here and now” is the only place from which, no matter how hard you try, you cannot escape. The important question is not whether you are here and now but how.
There is only one moment and one place where you can grieve or worry and that is here and now. The question is: how do you deal with worry, with grief? In mindfulness, it is not by escaping into a mythical "here and now”, but by staying present, with a kind open attention.
The words "here and now" actually add very little information. They rather act as an exclamation point. They refer to the immediacy of the experience. Now!
January 2017
This text is part of a series about misunderstandings regarding mindfulness.
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I think this is right, but would add that staying present is staying present *in* the here and now: that is, having one's current attention (here and now) focused on and open to the present moment, rather than having that same current attention (also here and now) drifting to past memories or future plans.