There’s incredible power in living in the present moment.

It’s really hard to do though. But with all of life’s choices, some reminders can go a long way in achieving present-moment living.

Sayings to keep me grounded have helped me immensely.

One of the most powerful has been, “You are exactly where you are meant to be.”

This is one that has helped me in some of the most difficult times of my life.

I randomly saw a version of it online somewhere. A short time later we moved to the mountains from the only home most of my children had ever known.

There were some snags with building our home so we moved from their childhood house, into tents on our property. It was only supposed to be a weekend. It was two weeks and as we camped we had no idea how long it was going to be.

My kids were sad. They were leaving friends and felt like they were leaving memories. In a way, we were leaving a phase of our life behind. We were moving into a beautiful home, but it was still not without tradeoffs.

When the building of our home finished, it was more than we anticipated and more than we had in the bank until we sold our other house.

It felt like an impossible situation.

I couldn’t help feeling like I was messing up and we had made a bad choice. It felt overwhelming. And then I remembered this mantra I had stashed in my mind. “You are exactly where you are meant to be.”

When I first saw it, I had to wonder, is that a correct statement? How can it not be? There is a purpose and reason for the elements and time of our life that we are experiencing. It is the place our period of development has brought us. We are where we need to be to learn.

Even more importantly, the sentiment helps us to stay in the present moment. To not long for the future or ruminate on the past. We do not know the future and we cannot change the past, so feeling terrible about the past and fearful about the future does nothing except torture us in the present moment.

It became a recurring theme that I needed for coping through one of the hardest years of my life, for many reasons.

I needed to focus on the present moment. From that realization, another mantra came back to my mind that I had read in the book, Already Free. “You’re okay.”

See, again, we often focus on what has been or what we fear will be. But, we forget that right now, we are okay. If you have the time to overthink the past or future, you are okay, because in the moments you aren’t okay, you are so focused on self-preservation that your thoughts aren’t allowed to wander in the same way.

It’s the same message I receive again and again and again. Focus on the present. In the present moment, you are okay.

A mantra is really nothing more than a regular reminder.

I have found that on the topic of living in the present moment, I need as many reminders as I can get. When we focus on the present moment, there is less regret, less anxiety, less depression, and more living.

Read here to see how the simple act of breathing can also be stabilizing.