When my best friend’s boyfriend died suddenly in a car accident six days before their three-year anniversary, it changed my perception of human existence through time. In order ease the emotional pain that this event caused my family, we approached the situation with an aim to bring some sort of significance out of the circumstance. This was when my mind started to contemplate this intellectual vitality: we carry out our lives with the false assumption that tomorrow is promised, too caught up with the past and the future to understand the value of moments before they become memories.

Practically, the key to the implementation of this concept into improving daily life is to understand that every moment is temporary. The human condition isn’t equipped to deal with permanent struggle, just as not all amazing experiences are meant to last. When we adopted this mindset, we noticed an increased ability to persist and a heightened sense of gratitude.

The essence of the frustration with good and bad circumstances is that we lack the mental capacity to determine the duration of each moment. That’s why we describe this concept with this specific diction, because the moment is the only measurement of time that is undefined. This is why the enlightened stress the significance of staying in the present. Our only way to survive through the highs and lows of life is to allow the present to take us over.