I used to love thinking about the past. I was very proud of the fact that I could mentally move back and forward through the past to any point at will instantly.
Then I realized that I was literally living in the past and sometimes putting bad things from the past into the present. The only place you’re ever real is in the moment, right now. It’s the only place change can happen, the only place where you can feel alive.
Remembering the past with joy may make you happy in the moment, but it’s an illusion, it’s in the moment you feel the joy. The emotion is present not past. You could just as easily experience joy by looking at something enjoyable in the present moment.
The definition is important I think because change, growth and true happiness are present bound.
You can’t time travel and feel good yesterday or tomorrow, they can never be real. It took me a really long time to get this concept, now I never or rarely think of the past or the future. I’ve realized that the moment is where all the power is, where all the joy is, where awareness is and the only place I can affect change.
The more I understand the moment as being all there is, the more I see other things like time having less meaning, it’s as if I’m in a constant stable moment and the illusion of time is just a mechanism to reflect growth.
To consider the moment at all means you’re looking for an understanding of it, that’s a good thing.
HTH
Jeff