Hi gang!  I’m off to Atlanta this weekend to enjoy a foodie seminar put on by Food Blog Forum. If you think you cannot live without me, you can follow my adventures via Twitter.  I’ll try and tweet when I get a chance!

While I’m out drinking, eating, and socializing, learning how to better improve my blog and recipes, I have some awesome guest posts lined up for you!  Today’s guest post is from Angela at Pretty in Orange.

Hi all, my name is Angela and I am the blogger behind Pretty in Orange.  I have been reading Off Her Cork for some time now and am lucky enough to be able to hang with Miss Andrea in person as we live in the same city.  When she put out the call for guest posts, I was more than thrilled to volunteer.

In today’s world, I think we are all suffering from some degree of ADD.  I know that I have trouble concentrating sometimes.  I start a task and then – oooo, shiny!  Yup, I’m gone.

I actually need to have at least two things going on at one time to be able to focus – one that can occupy a part of my brain (such as music or TV) so that I can work on something else.

When I would leave work, I would miss people greeting me on the way to the parking lot, because in my mind, I was already in my car, driving on the freeway.  I found it impossible to live in the moment, as it were.

I was laid off from my last job in January of 2009.  It’s been a blow to my ego to have not found a job yet.  Still, I feel as though this time has been a gift and has forced me to slow down and find those elusive moments.

I know we can’t all be out of work for nearly two years and survive.  I’m lucky that I have a supportive fiancé and that we’re not in a position where we need my salary just to survive.

So what can you do to live more in the moment?  Here is what worked for me:

1.  Realizing that trying to make everyone else happy would never work – because you can’t ever get to 100% on that one.  My time is better spent trying to make myself happy.  I radiate happiness and that lifts the moods of those around me.

2.  Giving myself permission to not be Superman/Superwoman.   Stop holding yourself to some standard that can’t possibly exist.

3.  Figuring out what’s really important in life.  No one is ever going to look back on their lives and say, if only I had done more laundry.  Nope.  Not going to happen.  Think about what you DON’T want to regret on your deathbed and go after that.

4.  Yoga.  I wish I had words to tell you what a difference this has made in my life.  At first I thought I would never get to the point where I could slow down my mind enough to enjoy more than just the physical benefits.  But through time and practice, I can now quiet my mind.

5.  Focusing on the senses.  I love to sit out on our deck and just take it all in.  I try to imprint on my mind the scent of the air and the grass, the sounds of the geese and ducks (we have a pond), and just the general feeling of that particular moment.

What I’ve noticed is a real improvement in my relationships with people.  I am focused on them when we’re talking, really listening instead of just thinking about what I want to say.   I look at people while they’re talking, instead of being distracted by what’s going on around us.

I hope that these tips can help you live in the moment more often!

Thanks Angela!  It’s always nice to take time and smell the flowers along the way right?  I know I’m guilty of being so focused on other things, I forget to breathe!