Maximizing the Potential of Each Moment

Written by Michelle Shelton

July 16, 2024

What if you believed that every moment had infinite possibility? Sit with that thought for just a moment. Where does your mind go? How would you live? What decisions would you make? Does it feel freeing or frightening? Is it hopeful or hopeless? Just notice where your mind goes when it is given infinite possibility. What do you visualize, what do you feel, what do you think?

Now consider this. What would it mean to you to maximize the potential of each moment? Potential can be defined as undeveloped qualities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness. What potential exists in each moment of your life, and what would that look like to take hold of it, to develop it, for future success or usefulness? Again, just sit with that for a minute. Can you feel into that potential with openness or do you resist it? What images, feelings, or thoughts do you notice?

Noticing where your mind goes as you reflect on the current moment can be a powerful exercise. Can you feel into the current moment with presence to all that is happening around you as it is happening? Or does your mind go to the future? It’s a fascinating paradox. Reflecting on the possibility of this moment while staying grounded in the present. There is an element of trust, an element of letting go. Instead of solving for a future potential, you are taking hold of the potential right in front of you. 

Grounding in the present isn’t something our brains do naturally. Dr. Dan Seigel, psychiatrist and neuroscientist, has described our brains as an anticipation machine, always trying to predict and anticipate what will happen at some future date. It’s how our brain keeps us safe, which is its primary goal. Our brains are wired for survival. The problem is, this can send us into an anxiety loop, anticipating something that hasn’t happened yet, and may never happen. This leaves us powerless, because we really can’t control the future. The only power we really have is in the present moment, responding to present events. 

So how do we maximize the potential of the current moment?

1. First, cultivate presence. A powerful way to bring us out of the ruminations and anxieties about the future and back into the current moment is by focusing on present sensation. This works because focusing on present sensation uses a different circuit in your brain than the worrying circuit that thinks about and focuses on the future. A simple brain hack to get you out of the anxiety loop is to focus on the sensation of your breath, the sensation of your five senses, the sensation of your inner body, also called interoception. 

2. Second, cultivate love and connection. Remember what potential is…undeveloped qualities that lead to future usefulness or success. So what kind of future do you want? If you want more love in your future, meet this moment with love. If you want more connection in your future, meet this moment with connection. I know, it sounds like a poem or a Beatles song. But it’s more than just poetic. Brain imaging studies have shown higher brain integration in states of loving kindness and compassion. Brain integration is the key to both mental and physical wellbeing. It is true, all you need is love. 

3. Third, cultivate trust. Trust is the belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. Not everyone or everything is trustworthy. So what can you trust in, and where should you cultivate your trust? Learning to let go and trust the future can be the best way to step out of the anxiety loop and be fully present with the potential of the current moment. For some, this may look like trusting God, or the divine, or the universe. Whatever your belief system, this trust in something bigger than yourself, in a bright future ahead, is freeing. 

So what would you do if you were maximizing the potential of the current moment? What door is right in front of you? What people are in your life and what relationships are ready to be nourished? What need is surfacing that you can respond to? What loving kindness is ready to be offered? These are the ways we maximize the potential of the current moment. Whatever your answer to these questions may be, come back into the present moment and live the fullness of your life.