When you look at the distant past and future, for example thinking about:
- how humanity will be in 100 years,
- how the life of the first Homo sapiens was,
- how the earth would be in one million years,
- what was before the Big Bang,
- will the world have an end, you feel the HERE AND NOW more strongly. The further away you look, the stronger your sense of presence becomes. Sometimes it might feel like you are waking up.
When you think about tomorrow and yesterday, you are lost in rumination, repetition and stress.
This should be noted in all self-improvement literature when they mention “focus on the now”. Most people are already preoccupied with minor daily concerns arising from their short-term plans and past rumination. That is precisely what they need to move AWAY from. So when they encounter such advice, they might get confused and/or think that they are already doing it right.