Stop Chasing: Finding What You Need in the Here and Now

“Life is what happens while we’re busy worrying about everything we need to change or accomplish. Slow down, get mindful, and try to enjoy the moment. This moment is your life.” ~Lori Deschene

Are you living life in a constant pursuit—chasing happiness, freedom, comfort, or success? What if the thing you’re so desperately looking for isn’t at the finish line? What if life isn’t a race to be won? These were the questions I asked myself not long ago.

I won’t lie; answering them didn’t completely change my life overnight. I didn’t have any major breakthrough when realizing what I’m about to tell you, but it was a starting point.

The starting point was realizing I had spent most of my life waiting. Chasing the things I believed I lacked.

In the pursuit of happiness, I was waiting for that moment in which all my dreams coming true would finally bring me everlasting joy.

Aspiring to be a free spirit—as free as the wind—I created mental cages and rules that made me feel stuck and hopeless, like a bird that knows how liberating it is to fly but cannot spread its wings.

Chasing comfort, I let possibilities for growth slip through my fingers and run away from me.

Trying to reach success, I forgot to take care of what truly deserved my attention: my health, my relationships, and my spark.

The major problem?

When you chase something, you’re placing it far away from you. You’re increasing the distance between what you desire and what you believe you lack.

But what you desire is already at your fingertips.

I didn’t have to wait for happiness because happiness wasn’t a destination to reach. Achieving my goals and making my dreams come true wouldn’t have made me any happier unless I was ready to fully embrace happiness in the here and now.

Happiness was already inside of me and all around. I just wasn’t looking.

The freedom I was so desperately chasing could have never touched me if I first didn’t get rid of the mental blocks I’d created myself. If I first didn’t destroy the walls my own mind had built.

I quickly realized that comfort wasn’t my friend—it just wanted to keep me safe, but not necessarily feeling alive.

Chasing success had me run, run, and run without actually going anywhere, like a hamster on a wheel.

If life isn’t a race, why are we always running?

We jump from one goal to another, from one’s arms to another’s, from one dream to another. We’re always running, chasing something that ends up turning into nothing.

If we allowed ourselves to take a moment, slow down, and hit the brake pedal, we’d soon realize that the chasing is what’s making us unhappy.

It’s pushing all we ever wanted far away from us—within our eyesight, but out of our reach.

How do you stop chasing the next big thing when you’ve spent your whole life in pursuit of something—anything?

All You Want Is Already Within You

The major change you must make is shifting your perspective about what you want.

I wanted freedom, but I wasn’t allowing myself to feel it because I had created unbreakable rules for my life. Then, it hit me: How could I expect to experience freedom in other areas of my life (career, money, etc.) if I wasn’t even free from my own mind?

Whether you want love, connection, happiness, or purpose, are you sure you’re not the one standing in your way?

If you want love and connection, are you loving yourself and genuinely getting interested in others?

If you want to be happier, are you filling your days with small things that can bring you more joy?

If you want purpose, are you actively seeking and engaging in activities that can bring you a greater sense of purpose?

Shift your perspective and start believing that everything you seek is already within you. Because it is.

Live in the Here and Now

Being more mindful means learning to be where your feet are. Embracing the here and now can put an end to what feels like an endless race.

Because there can be no race if you learn not to place any expectations or hopes in the future.

There’s just this moment—right here, right now. Nothing else matters. Nothing else really exists.

If this moment is all that’s true and all that exists, it means you already hold in your hands what you’re chasing.

Becoming more mindful means giving yourself the space to be, to exist—still, frozen, standing.

Mindfulness is not an end state but a way of living.

You don’t have to meditate for one hour every day to start being more mindful.

There are practices other than meditation you can adopt to bring more mindfulness into your day.

For example, you could start by changing how you do mundane tasks.

It could be as simple as sipping your coffee slowly, noticing its warmth and flavor instead of chugging it down.

Or listening to what your friend has to say instead of thinking how you’re going to respond.

Or, why don’t you start doing one thing at a time instead of falling for the trap of multitasking?

If your body is here, why do you let your mind be anywhere else?

Celebrate the Journey

Finally, if you want to stop chasing the next goal, mental state, or fleeting desire, you must recognize how far you’ve gone before you start looking at what’s ahead.

Instead of not giving yourself the time to reflect and look at the progress you’ve made, why don’t you try to slow down for once?

Celebrate your achievements, big or small. Praise yourself for the path you’ve walked before you start searching for the next finish line. Your results deserve recognition.

What’s the purpose of setting big goals and milestones to reach if, once you get there, you don’t even allow yourself to feel it, to enjoy the experience?

The pursuit of anything loses its meaning if it’s not celebrated.

What’s the point of reaching the top of the mountain if you keep looking for the next one to hike instead of enjoying the view from above?

Chasing everything—or anything—won’t give you what you hope to get until you start giving it to yourself. Reflect on what you’re chasing and ask yourself, “How can I embrace it in the here and now?”

Stop wandering in life, on a never-ending pursuit of something that’s already within you. If you only started looking…

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