Living in the moment isn’t about chasing something new or pushing yourself to get ahead. It’s about finding comfort with who you are, what you have, and where you are right now. You don’t need to pack your calendar or chase down an endless list of goals to feel happy.
Let’s look at some ways you can settle into the present, let go of pressure, and find more peace every day.
Notice Your Surroundings
Take a few minutes to look around and pay close attention to what you see, hear, and smell. Tune into the colours and shapes near you, listen to passing sounds, and feel the temperature against your skin.
Let these details pull you out of your thoughts and remind you that you’re here, now.
Focus on One Thing at a Time
When you multitask, you split your mind and miss out on the present. Try to give your full attention to whatever you’re doing, whether you’re eating, listening to music, or going for a walk.
This helps you enjoy life as it happens instead of speeding through it.
Slow Down Your Daily Activities
Rushing stops you from enjoying simple things. Try to walk slower, chew your food, and breathe deeply when you can. Notice how much more you take in when you give yourself the chance to go at your own pace.
Put Away the Phone
When you reach for your phone, check if you really need it or if you’re just filling a quiet moment. If you don’t need it, set it down. Give your attention to the people, sights, and sounds right in front of you.
Life isn’t happening through a screen.
Accept What You Feel
It’s tempting to push away feelings you don’t like, but ignoring them never helps. Take a moment to recognise your emotions, good or bad, without judging yourself. Every feeling is part of your experience, and accepting them can help you feel at peace.
Limit Worry and Regret
It’s easy to replay things from the past or worry about tomorrow, but these thoughts don’t change anything. When you notice your mind drifting to regrets or worries, bring your focus back to what’s happening now. Come back to the moment, as many times as you need.
Take Deep Breaths
Your breath is always with you. Slow, deep breaths can calm your mind and bring you back from distractions. Try a few deep breaths whenever your thoughts start to race or you feel tense.
Connect with People
Being present isn’t just about being alone with your thoughts. When you speak to someone, give them your full attention. Listen to what they’re saying without planning what you’ll say next. This kind of attention can make your relationships feel deeper and more rewarding.
Appreciate Simple Pleasures
A good cup of tea, a cosy seat, a sunny spot—these little moments often make up the best parts of the day. Take time to notice and enjoy them. Gratitude for small things anchors you in the now.
Let Go of Perfection
The moment you’re in doesn’t need to be perfect. Let go of chasing flawless experiences or perfect happiness. Life is full of small flaws, surprises, and changes, and that’s what gives it meaning. Accept what comes, as it comes.
Spend Time in Nature
Natural spaces slow you down. Even a walk in a small park or standing under a tree can help you reconnect with the present. Listen to the birds, watch the clouds shift, or feel the wind. Let nature show you how to pause.
A Manifesto for a Life of Purpose
You Don’t Need a Calling asks us to stop searching for purpose and start being present. The media, churches and self-help gurus inundate us with advice:
Pursue your calling
Become the best version of yourself
Make your life count
But these messages can end up with many people feeling worn out, and feeling like failures. From the constant pursuit to do more, be more and never give up.
A big issue is that we live in a capitalist society, where ‘purpose’ is determined by profitability, and our ‘success’ is driven by growth and production. Instead of running a successful tiny business to do good in the community, we are expected to grow it into many stores to employ a big workforce, and become a millionaire.
Instead of being happy living in a small functional home, we are expected to ‘get on the property ladder’ and mortgage ourselves up to the hilt for decades, to keep up with ‘growing house prices’.
Society has narrowed our perspective of work, gifts, and success, turning our unique energies into commodities.
But we don’t have to accept this limiting view. By resisting systems of exploitation (bad pay, fast fashion, factory-farmed ready-meals, ‘bullshit jobs‘), we can slow our constant forward motion, tune into our life’s purpose and perhaps – find a little inner peace!
Purpose isn’t something we find – it’s something that finds us, when we slow down, switch off and learn to be present in the world around us. Chart a new course for your life, and know that (as everything in our lives is part of God’s plan), you can let go of the cynical belief that our lives have no purpose at all.
If you empty dustbins or care for a loved one or clean a hotel room, your life is as purposeful and meaningful and important as anyone else’s. You don’t have to ‘wait until you are more successful’ to ‘live your life’.
This book is not about how to become the person you wish you were. It’s about how to free yourself, to be present to who you already are.
Author Damon Garcia is a theological and writer, who discovered his passion for ministering to ‘spiritual misfits’ through a young adult ministry. This passion led him out of Evangelicalism, and into the real world, where he inspires a disillusion generation, himself inspired by anti-capitalist politics. He lives in California, USA.
A Parable on Why ‘More’ is Not the Answer
This is a popular parable, that often gets told in different ways, but the message is always the same:
A fisherman has caught enough to feed himself and his family for the day, and is resting on the beach. A businessman approaches him and asks ‘Why don’t you catch more fish, then you will make more money’.
The fisherman replies ‘Why would I do that?’
The businessman says ‘Then you could buy a bigger boat, employ staff and earn enough money to retire’.
The fisherman replies ‘What would I do then?’
The businessman says ‘You could retire, and lay on the beach all day’.
The fisherman replies ‘I am doing that already, without all the stress!’
Italy: Birth of the Slow Food Movement
Today England is all about ‘fast food’. Whether that’s fast food restaurants, supermarket ready-meals or ‘meals ready in 15 minutes’. But the slow food movement is growing in popularity, and it started in Italy! When local man Carlo Petrini was appalled that a branch of McDonald’s set up in his favourite piazza, near the Spanish Steps in Rome. He said that day was when ‘the umbilical cord that once connected the farmer and consumer was cut’.
The worldwide co-operative movement (not the same as co-op supermarket!) started here, where workers genuinely own the company they are employed at.
The interesting thing is that in Bologna (where the movement is strongest), people work less but are more affluent. They practice the opposite of the ‘work till you drop’ philosophy.
They open shops early, close for several hours to go have a proper lunch and nap, then open again until around 8pm. Then go home for another meal, wine, conversation and sleep.
In England, we are still opening shops at 9am and shutting them at 6pm. This leads to most people having not much of a life ‘outside work’, and grabbing a quick plastic-wrapped sandwich for lunch, instead of enjoying a proper meal.
What can we learn from Italy (and other European countries)? In how they balance life and work, shut for a few hours to eat and rest properly, and tend to be all the better for it (physical and mental health, family time and better economics). Who in England is creating laws, to suggest we continue a working lifestyle – that obviously isn’t working?
The Origins of Slow Food in Bra, Italy
Bra, a small town in Piedmont, sits between gentle hills and rows of vines. It is a place where markets still anchor the week and where local wine, and hazelnuts have deep roots. Nearby towns guard white truffles like treasure. Names like Barolo and Barbaresco are not just labels, they are histories in a bottle. Food here carries memory.
In 1986, fast food chains moved into Italy with speed, most famously in Rome near the Spanish Steps. The sight of burgers and fries near such a symbol of beauty upset many Italians. In Piedmont, people in Bra and the surrounding Langhe felt that same jolt. Their culture was built on slow cooking, seasonal produce, and small producers.
The first public actions were not grand. They were gatherings, talks, and protests that mixed humour with sharp critique. People marched, carrying bread and wine as symbols of what they wanted to protect. They spoke about long lunches, family recipes, and the value of knowing who made your food. They asked a clear question. If Italy loses its taste, what does it gain?
Residents in Bra rallied around their traditions. They pointed to what was at stake. The Alba white truffle depends on clean woods and skilled hunters. Nebbiolo grapes do not thrive in a rush. The argument was not only about one restaurant. It was about the future of a whole way of life.
Carlo Petrini and the Early Protests
At the centre stood Carlo Petrini, a journalist from Bra with a deep love of food and a knack for organising. He wrote about gastronomy, but he also worked with cultural groups and civic clubs. He saw food as culture, not just calories. That view shaped what came next.
In 1986, protests against fast food drew wide notice. In Rome, demonstrations highlighted how foreign chains might erode local habits. In Piedmont, Petrini helped turn that spark into steady action. Marches and public meetings used playful signs that put vineyards ahead of burgers, and pasta ahead of speed.
Local producers walked beside students and chefs. The mood was lively, yet firm. Reporters came to see why a small town cared so much about lunch.
The response was quick. Newspapers ran photos of banners and baskets of bread. TV crews asked why people would protest a hamburger. The answer, said Petrini and his peers, was not about banning anything. It was about choice, dignity, and taste. That clear message drew allies from beyond Piedmont and set the stage for a movement with staying power.
Building Momentum in the Late 1980s
Protests soon shifted into planning. Community leaders, cooks, and farmers met in halls, cafés, and wineries. They mapped what needed saving, from seed varieties to cooking methods. They set up local groups to promote seasonal cooking and direct links between producers and buyers. Education became a key tool.
Early events were joyful and useful at once. Tastings paired wines with regional dishes, and talks explained why biodiversity matters to flavour. Schools invited growers to speak about soil and seasons. Restaurants added notes about producers to their menus.
These gatherings moved the cause from protest to proposal. The message changed shape. It was not only against fast food, it was for a shared food culture rooted in place. That turn from anger to action laid the groundwork for a formal identity that could travel beyond one town.
The Birth of the Slow Food Manifesto
In 1989, the Slow Food Association launched with a manifesto presented in Paris. The text set out a bold defence of taste and time. It framed eating as a pleasure tied to respect for land and labour. One line captured the spirit: “A firm defence of quiet material pleasure is the only way to oppose the universal folly of Fast Life.” Another argued for “a new culture of food” that values diversity and conviviality.
The manifesto highlighted three linked aims. It called for the protection of biodiversity, support for sustainable farming, and the right to enjoy food without guilt. It spoke for farmers who keep old seeds alive, and artisans who refuse shortcuts. It also spoke for eaters who want to know where their food comes from.
The Paris launch helped the idea spread. Groups formed across Italy, then in France, Germany, the UK, and beyond. The message resonated because it tied big issues to everyday acts. If we save heirloom beans, we keep flavours on the plate and resilience in the field. If we pay a fair price for local food, we protect a craft and a landscape. If we eat with attention, we connect our tables to the people who fill them.
Core Principles of Good, Clean, and Fair Food
The movement rests on three simple words.
- Good: Food should taste good, use quality ingredients, and reflect place. Example: protecting Barolo wine means defending careful vineyard work and long ageing, which give depth and character.
- Clean: Production should respect the environment and animal welfare.
- Fair: Prices should reward producers and be accessible for eaters. Example: direct sales at markets or community schemes can give farmers a stable income and offer buyers fresh food at honest prices.
Early Challenges and Italian Expansion
Growth was not smooth. Funding was tight, and some in big agriculture dismissed the effort as nostalgic. Others worried that talk of taste would exclude those on low incomes. The response focused on concrete projects and wider access.
One key tool was the creation of presidia, small projects to protect endangered foods, breeds, and methods. In Tuscany, teams supported old grains like Verna wheat, which thrive in poorer soils and make fragrant bread. In Emilia-Romagna, groups worked with producers of traditional balsamic vinegar, guarding long ageing in wooden barrels.
Good Food, Good Wine, Good Shoes!
Food is life in Italy. Means are an event, with fresh fruits, and a little good wine with good Italian food.
Like France, stylish Italians pay a bit more for quality skincare and clothing (you won’t find shops selling cheap clothes that fall apart and are made in the Far East).
Italy now has some of the world’s best brands of vegan shoes made with apple leather, a waste product from the apple industry in Milan (and some also make grape leather, from wine skins!)
