There is a famous saying that goes, “There is no time like the present,” and this New Year, Joanna Gaines agrees.
In an Instagram post shared Tuesday morning, Gains encouraged her followers to stop “mourning the past” and start “living for the now.”
“I’m challenging myself in this new year to live for now. The present,” the interior designer and Magnolia business owner wrote.
Gaines explained to her followers that she is going to focus on taking in every single moment of the New Year, not letting a single sight go by without her purposefully and intentionally taking it in.
“Taking in every breath, every sight, and sound and holding it dearly. Not thinking about how the good ol’ days have passed us by or how the best is yet to come,” Gaines added.
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The former reality TV star and mother of five added how she frequently focuses on how time passes so quickly, sometimes missing out on important moments because of it.
The photo she shared was of her six-month-old son, Crew.
Whether it’s watching her new baby grow quickly, or the fact that her eldest son, Drake, is only four years away from going to college, Gaines finds herself watching time speed right by.
“It’s always been my nature to reflect on the past and linger there a while. I find myself thinking about what I will miss and how life is just moving too fast,” she reflected. “Drake will be driving in two years and off to college in four. And just like that I have found myself mourning the past but now in future tense.”
“You see what I just did there?” she added. “This whole time thing can feel like a thief if you let it.”
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“But that right now, this very second, this is the gift. These are the days,” Gaines wrote. “These are the moments. And I’m gonna breathe them all in. If there’s pain and sorrow, or happiness and hope, let it in and then let it out. I want to enjoy the now because it’s the only thing we can actually embrace.”
Learning to slow down, and be mindful of the moments passing by is a lesson we could all stand to learn. This year, take Joanna’s advice: slow down, and focus on the present.