The only way to live in the present moment is to be yourself, who you are, your true self.

And I mean that with my heart, soul, and entire being: The only way to live in the present moment on a daily basis is to be your true self.

Unless we are ourselves, we can’t live in the present moment – because we are not fully here. Parts of us are invested elsewhere, in old human conditioning, and that conditioning is like a fog that lies between us and the present moment. We can’t see clearly and be here fully when our entire being isn’t here.

But we can practice being present and staying in the moment. By doing so, we begin to take back our energy from the patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting it has been invested in. The patterns that are part of the ego.

And we can practice, focus, and make conscious choices to stay in the present moment and be present with other people. That work is essential to stop the old conditioning and to begin to return to who we are.

But the only way to live and be in the present moment without practicing is to be who we are, our true selves.

When we are ourselves, we are here, at this moment, naturally. We don’t have to practice. It is our natural state.

But since we humans have come so far from who we are due to the ego-based state of consciousness, realizing and returning to our true selves can take time.

We may have to do a lot of work to remove the veils and see, feel, and heal what is not our true selves—the conditioning and the old wounds we have been carrying. So that we can open up to who we are beyond them.

The practices are part of the path that leads us toward self-realization. They are meant to help us become aware of, stop, and let go of the old patterns and open up to who we are beyond them so that we may realize our true selves.

And the goal is to realize and be our true selves so we don’t have to practice.

The destination of the path is to be who we are.