The Mindset Mentor - How to Live in the Moment

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

Are you missing life by always chasing the next thing? In this episode, I break down how to let go of stress and fully embrace the present moment. If you’ve ever felt like happiness is just out of reach, this episode will show you it’s already here—you just have to pay attention. Reveal the hidden patterns shaping your choices, habits, and success. Take my FREE Identity Quiz to discover who you really are and how to break through to the next level. Join here 👉 https://www.identityunlockquiz.com/   My first book that I’ve ever written is now available.  It’s called LEVEL UP and It’s a step-by-step guide to go from where you are now, to where you want to be as fast as possible. 📚If you want to order yours today, you can just head over to robdial.com/book Here are some useful links for you…  If you want access to a multitude of life advice, self development tips, and exclusive content daily that will help you improve your life, then you can follow me around the web at these links here: Instagram  TikTok Facebook Youtube

Welcome to today's episode of the mindset mentor podcast. I'm your host Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so hit that subscribe button so you never miss another podcast episode. I put out episodes four times a week to help you learn and improve yourself so that you can improve your life. So if you're interested in that, hit that subscribe button. Today, I'm gonna talk about how to let go of stress and how to live in the moment as much as you possibly can. You ever sit back and wonder, why am I here? What is the point of all of this? What's the point of doing what we do?

What's the point of going to work? What's the point of being alive? What's the point of having a family? What's the point of all of these things that I do? Is there any point behind all of it? We live in a world where everything is constantly moving forward. We're driven by goals. We have ambition. We have this relentless pursuit of success. We have achievement that we're going for. Fame that some people are going for Recognition that some people are going for but you ever take a step back and look at all of it and be like What's the actual point not in a morbid sense of like what's the point of being here versus not being here?

But like I'm actually just curious like what is the point of all of it? You know and we have we have constantly trained ourselves to feel like we need to be constantly chasing something. And then when we get that something, what do we do? What happens when we get that something? Do we sit back and do we enjoy, oh my gosh, this accomplishment, this thing that I've been working so hard for. Do we enjoy it?

No, we immediately go to the next thing. And we don't even actually enjoy the accomplishment because we have trained ourselves to always be somewhere else. Our mind is always in the future or always in the past. And so when we get to the moment that we've been wanting to get to for so long, do we feel good about it? No. Do we focus on feeling good about it? No, we're focusing on like, what's the next thing? We can't even be present because we have unconsciously trained our minds to always be somewhere else.

And I want you to understand this took me a long time. The purpose of your life is right now. It is to be as present as possible, as often as possible. Now, I understand. We're not gonna be present every single moment of every single day. But just like you train a dog to sit, you need to be able to train your mind to sit, to be here. And will it run off every once in a while? Of course. And then when it does, you bring it back.

The same way that you train a dog, you have to train your mind to sit here, to be present, and to be present as often as you possibly can. Now, when you first train a dog, are they terrible at sitting? Absolutely, absolutely terrible. Are you gonna be terrible at being present when you're first training yourself? Of course you are. Are you gonna get better?

Of course you will. And so I want you to understand this and I want you to really, I wanna put it in perspective of how important the present moment is to you. If you fast forward 30 years from today and you were to see yourself and you've accomplished everything you've ever wanted,

all the money, all the fame, all the achievement, all the joy, the happiness, the success, whatever it is that you want, you've achieved everything that you wanted 30 years from today. I guarantee you that you would give everything that you own, every bit of money, all of the clothes and cars and houses and achievements and everything,

you would trade everything that you own to be right back in this moment. If you achieved every single thing you've ever wanted 30 years from today, you would trade all of that to be right back in this moment. No matter how bad you think this moment is, you would trade it to come back here, or how boring you think it is. You would trade it to come back here. Or how boring you think it is.

You would trade it all back to be right back in your car, driving to your shitty job that you hate. Or to be right back in this moment, listening to the podcast where there's a messy house and a screaming baby. You would trade all of it to be right back in this moment. So what does that show you? That the moment is actually the most important thing.

You know, if I offered to give you $100 million, would you take it? Of course you would. But there's only one condition. I'm gonna give you $100 million right now, but you don't get to wake up tomorrow. Would you take it? No, you wouldn't. Which means this life that you

currently have right now, as it is, no matter how great or how okay or how shitty or how bad it seems like it is, is worth more than a hundred million dollars. But are you constantly acting as if it's not good enough? Are you constantly trying to escape the moment? Which shows you, 30 years from now you've traded all to be here. If I give you $100 million and I wake up tomorrow, you would say no. You know, there was 150,000 people that died yesterday.

Every single one of them would gladly trade places with you if they were given the choice. So I do think, obviously, that it is very important to grow, to achieve, to do things, to experience life as much as you possibly can. All of that is extremely important. But don't forget that the purpose of life, the purpose of your life is to enjoy the passage of time.

That's it. In the 70s, James Taylor created a song, and there's a line in it, and says, "'The purpose of life is to enjoy the passage of time. But how many times are all of us so busy that we don't even think about the present moment? Or we're so mean to ourselves or we're so mean to others and we're always wanting more and we're always resisting

the way that the world is. And we don't just sit here and realize that there's so much in this moment. There's so much in the, the, the, just the second that you're in, you know, it's, it's really interesting as you start to, to try to work on mindfulness. When you first try to be more mindful and be more present, it's boring as hell. And you're like, what I should be doing something. There's something else I should be doing. And now you start to work on a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more, you really start to realize why all of the gurus and the Indian gurus and the spiritual gurus

talk about how rich each moment actually is. Because when you're fully present in a moment, there's so much that you can get from it. If you go outside right now, and you just sit there for a few minutes and you notice the sun that's out there and you look at the trees and you can hear the birds chirping in the background,

and you really try to make yourself present there's a lot that there really is to enjoy in the present moment. But there's only there's only one place to enjoy the passage of time and that is in the present moment. You can't enjoy the passage of time in the past, you can't enjoy the passage of time in the future. Presence is what is behind all of it. Presence is what is behind your stress, your anxiety, your working to be better, your negative self-talk, all of those things.

When you remove all of those things, all of those constructs of the mind, presence is what's behind all of it. So what's getting in the way of you enjoying each present moment? Ask yourself that question, journal on it. What is getting in the way of you enjoying each present moment. Ask yourself that question, journal on it. What is getting in the way of me enjoying every present moment?

Is it self judgment? Is it fear? Is it self limiting beliefs? Is it me resisting the way the world is? Is it me wanting something that I used to have? Is it me wanting something that I've never had before? When you look at all of the things that you love or you love to do, they're almost always something that make you feel present.

Like, for instance, dogs. One of the reasons why humans love dogs so much, whether we realize it or not, is because they are so present. Like, they show us what we could be. Now, obviously, they're completely full of love and there's all of that that's in as well. But like, dogs are present. Dogs are not thinking about something else. They're not worrying about something else. They are fully here. They are fully present. That's one of the reasons why I love dogs. What about babies?

Babies, fully here, fully present. They bring us to the present moment to be present with them. What about like, you know, going to a big sporting event? If you love going to sporting events, why do you love it? Because it can get so exciting that you're so into the game that everything else disappears. You are so present with what's going on. What about traveling to a beautiful place, seeing a sunset in Greece? Why do you love that? Why is it so amazing? Because everything else

disappears and you can get yourself to be present in this moment. Going to the movies, why do people love going to the movies? Because you get there for a little while and you forget about everything that you have to do later. Or you forget about what you're worried about. You forget about your past. You forget about your fears, your limiting beliefs, your negative self-talk. Going to the movies will do that.

What about playing an instrument? Playing an instrument can get you there. And so the things that we really love are the things that bring us to the present moment. All of them, what do they have in common? They bring us here. Our minds are constantly trapped in a time warp. It's oscillating between regrets of the past

and anxieties of the future. And we will be right back. And now, back to the show. And the mental time travel keeps us from what really matters, which is being here, and the the mental time travel keeps us from what really matters which is being here Enjoying the passage of time the only moment that you truly have because you could worry about tomorrow And you'd be get get run over by a truck today. There's no point The only moment that we truly have is this moment in one of my favorite philosophers

You've heard me probably quote him a lot on the podcast is Alan Watts And he says the meaning of life is just to be alive And one of my favorite philosophers, you've heard me probably quote him a lot on the podcast, is Alan Watts. And he says, the meaning of life is just to be alive. It's so plain and so obvious and so simple, yet everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves. If we're constantly trying to strive

for future achievements or dwell in the past, we will be in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction. And trust me when I tell you this, I have done it. I have stressed myself out and stressed myself out in order to achieve, to get to a certain place, get to a certain place, get to a certain place. And when I got to the place where I feel like I got everything I ever wanted, all of the shit I ever wanted, all of the stuff, guess what? Still didn't feel good. I didn't feel any different. It did nothing to me. And that's how we become these as the Buddha say hungry ghosts, right? You're trying to

fill yourself up with something that can never make you full. And so it's just like a ghost eating, it's just going to fall through because they don't have a stomach, it's going to land in the ground, they're going to constantly want more and more and more. You know, we tell don't have a stomach, it's gonna land on the ground. They're gonna constantly want more and more and more. We tell ourselves stuff like, oh, I'll be happy when I get that next promotion. Oh, if only I hadn't made that mistake in the past,

maybe she wouldn't have broken up with me. We're in the future. Oh my gosh, we get that promotion. We're in the past. Oh my gosh, if I wouldn't have said that thing. And what's actually happening is it's just our brain robbing us of the current moment, the current joy that we could be in.

And we're constantly for our entire lifetime, and let's become aware of this and become present, chasing happiness, and it remains perpetually out of reach. Like it's like the closer we get to our goal, it's like the horizon, the closer we get to our goals, the further they get from us. You'll never catch the horizon, but you can enjoy to our goals, the further they get from us. You'll never catch the horizon, but you can enjoy the boat ride, if you think about it.

So, if we have to, you know, what we have to learn to really try to do is to try to enjoy the present moment and to be as present as possible. And studies show, this isn't just, you know, some woo woo woo bulls**t, studies show that as we become more present, we become happier.

As we train ourselves and train our brains to become more present, we become happier. As we train ourselves and train our brains to be more present, we become happier, right? By nothing changing, except for just being here. You know, studies show that meditation and mindfulness practices are directly linked to increase happiness. Directly linked. And when you do meditation, you do mindfulness practices, there's a few parts of your brain that really turn on. And I wanted to do research to actually show you guys that are out there like, oh my God, I'm too busy to meditate, right?

If you feel like you're too busy to meditate, you need more time to meditate. So a couple parts of your brain that really start to change as you meditate more and more. The first one is the anterior cingulate cortex. And so the function of it is involved with functions like emotional regulation, your impulse control, and error detection.

And so when you meditate in the ACC, what it does is it helps you improve your emotional regulation, it reduces the tendency for your mind to wander and go somewhere else, so it helps you be more present, and it really contributes to a more stable and present-focused mindset. So another part of your brain that's called the insula,

and the insula plays a role in consciousness and the perception of all of your bodily sensations, how you can actually feel what's going on. And so when you meditate, it enhances your body awareness and introspection, which is the ability to perceive internal bodily states, and it promotes a sense of presence and grounding in the current moment.

So also another part of your brain is called the hippocampus. The hippocampus is really crucial for memory formation and emotional regulation as well. Notice there's a lot of emotional regulation here. And when you meditate, the hippocampus, what it does is it improves your emotional stability, it reduces stress, and with neuroplasticity,

it actually changes the meditator's brain to help them remain calm and composed even when they're in stressful situations. And then the other really important thing that meditation does and mindfulness does is it changes your amygdala. Your amygdala is your brain's fear center, and it's involved with processing emotions

like fear and anxiety. And people who are experienced meditators, that when you start to meditate, it reduces the size and the reactivity of your amygdala, which means that you're gonna have decrease in stress and anxiety, and a down regulation really helps individuals start to stay calm and less reactive in things that they have

that would be emotional triggers to them. So, for those of you guys like, I don't have time, it's BS, if you, I don't have time. It's BS. If you think you don't have time, like I remember there's a meditator I heard one time and he said, if you don't think you have 30 minutes to meditate, you need three hours. You need more time.

And so when we look at it, how do we become more present? If we're really looking to try to get the most out of life and try to be as present as possible, how do we become present? Well, the thing that I have found over really working at this, being somebody who is very analytical, very stressed out, always searching for the future, always trying to do more,

always trying to achieve more, never being satisfied, what I have found is that the body is the most important aspect of it. Because your mind is almost always somewhere else. Your mind is almost always somewhere else. It's almost always in the future or the past. But your body is always here. It's always in the present moment.

And so I'm gonna give you a couple tips to kind of help you with this. The first thing is to use the body, to sit in a chair. And if you notice yourself anxious, if you notice yourself stressed, if you notice yourself constantly worrying about the future, whatever it is you're getting to that moment, what you wanna do is you wanna go through all five of your senses for 30 seconds each and just ask

yourself, what do I see? And for 30 seconds, just look around and see everything that you can see and just become aware of everything that you see. The next thing is what do I hear? What do I hear? Can you hear the air conditioning? I can hear a car in the distance and you just start listening to all the things you can hear. Then you ask yourself, what do I feel? conditioning, I can hear a car in the distance, and you just start listening to all the things you can hear. Then you ask yourself, what do I feel? Well, I feel my butt on the chair, I feel my shirt on my skin, I feel the air condition is kind of cold, it's blowing directly on me. What do I feel?

You start to pay attention to what you feel. What do I smell? What do you smell? See, if there's some smells, I could smell it. The cleaning people came last week, so I can smell a little bit of their their cleaning supplies I can smell the dogs a little bit in the distance I can smell the dog whatever does you start to see what you can smell what can I taste um you know I can taste my coffee that I had a little while ago what else do you taste and you just pay

attention to the five senses that you have it only takes three minutes that's X is 30 seconds you know each one of them so it's about two and a half to three minutes but it brings you to the it's 30 seconds, you know, each one of them, so it's about two and a half to three minutes, but it brings you to the present moment. And you do this over and you over and over and over again. Right, and so you, then what you try to do is you try to learn to challenge yourself to be present when you're doing the most boring things,

the most mundane things. Like if you're doing the laundry, go through and think about that, you know, try to bring yourself to the present moment and focus on all of the stuff that your body can What you can see what you can smell what you can feel And actually pay attention to those things bring yourself to the present moment when you're washing your hands What do you feel you feel the warm water you can what do you smell you can smell the the?

Hopefully no smell a small bathroom Hopefully what you smell as you can sit there you can smell the soap, right? What do you notice when you're washing your hands? What about when you're walking through the house without your shoes on? You can feel the carpet, you can feel the wood floor, and you try to bring yourself and try to challenge yourself to be present when you're doing the most mundane things. So that's the first thing is to use your body.

Second thing, I mean, I don't know how many times I have to say it on the podcast before people start doing it, is do breath work followed by meditation. You can go on YouTube, you can do breath work, literally and there's people out there that'll breathe with you, you just breathe it. And give yourself time to sit down and do it. And I would recommend this,

give yourself more time than you want to. So like this morning I did a 15 minute, it was actually an 18 minute breath work followed by 30 minutes of meditation. So it's like I gave myself 45 minutes of like, I'm not doing anything else. Because what I'm personally just to give you an idea what I'm working on is the past six months I've been training my nervous system to calm down so that I can be more calm so that I could be more centered. Because I was just I've trained myself from childhood with all of the stress that's happening in childhood into being an adult. I've trained myself to be

stressed. So I've done the exact opposite the past six months where I'm meditating and training myself to bring my nervous system to calm down to be calm. And if your mind wanders during meditation, as it will over and over and over again, don't guilt yourself, don't shame yourself, just bring it back. And over and over and over again, when it leaves you bring it back shame yourself, just bring it back and over and over and over again. When it leaves, you bring it back. When it leaves, you bring it back.

When it leaves, you bring it back. And you just continue to keep bringing it back. And you will get better at being present the more that you do it. The third thing that I would recommend doing is to journal the question, what's getting in the way of me being present? Is it fear?

Is it limiting beliefs? Is it other people? Is it you not scheduling time for yourself? What is getting in the way of me being present and to really journal through that question and see what comes up? And then the fourth thing which I think is probably one of the most important with with how the world is right now is disconnect From technology stop being on your fucking phones all day long stop being in front of the computer all day long stop watching TV all day Long like go, read a book, sit there and enjoy the passage of time, watch the clouds go by,

and try to train your mind not to always have to be stimulated every single second of the day. Because that is going to lead you to more stress, more anxiety, and it's gonna take you away from being in the present moment, which is ultimately the only thing that we currently have. The only thing we really ever will have, every moment of your life is a different present moment.

So how present can you actually be? So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on Instagram stories, tag me in at RobDialJr, R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. And with that, I'm gonna leave you the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make somebody else's day better.

I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.