Common sense actions that improve quality of life seem the most difficult to sustain on a consistent basis.  If we lived them daily, the havoc that negativity creates could be dramatically reduced.  One of those common sense actions is attending to what's important today and leaving yesterday behind, and tomorrow to tomorrow.

It seems easier to dwell on the past than using common sense to maintain sanity in our lives. Mulling over how we have been mistreated by others, ruminating on our failures or agonizing about other peoples' accomplishments consumes us. These negative and self-destructive thoughts reduce our self-esteem and leave us ineffective.

Eckhart Tolle in his book 'Practicing the Power of Now', states that when we are not thinking about the past we are "always trying to get somewhere other than where we are, which is focusing on becoming, achieving, attaining or chasing some new thrill or pleasure."  The future creates the escape route from today's pressures or fears.       

Expending so much energy either re-living the past or fast forwarding to the future, leaves little time to open the biggest window of opportunity to create balance in our lives - focusing on the now. 

Ellen Langer states in her book 'Mindfulness', "for employer and employee alike, mindfulness on the present may increase flexibility, productivity, innovation, leadership ability and satisfaction.  Since most of us, almost all day, almost all week, are either traveling to work, working, worrying about work, or planning the work ahead, the application of mindfulness to the work setting are particularly useful." But this practice is easier said then done.

The following are some practical ideas from 'Practicing the Power of Now' to help deal with only what's in front of us right now:

• Gain satisfaction from the journey instead of seeing everything you do as a means to an end
• Train yourself to pay full attention with all your senses to the activity or process you are involved in
• Often ask yourself 'what's going on inside me this moment?'  What do you see, hear, feel, smell, taste and know on the deepest level about this moment?  These thoughts can help ground you in the present
• Focus on the one thing you can do now
• Change your talk from I did, I need to or I will, to I am or I choose to right now

If we could harness our common sense to stay focused in the moment, we could energize ourselves, and our abilities, rather than creating lives full of imbalance, stress and anxiety.