If your strategy for trying to live in the present more doesn't acknowledge that the present often sucks, you will find yourself frequently convinced that you have failed instead of realizing that your expectations are unrealistic.

I swoon and recoil at the tresses blowing
in an arbor without glow
or flame. These are reprieves. Respites
in the demands of sensation
and flow. Know this: you can you can
you can you can you can.

~ Margot Schilpp

Confusion is a natural emotional aspect of the learning cycle. It's easy to allow this emotional discomfort to convince us that we lack the capacity to understand concepts and master skills. Steering away from the temporary experience of vulnerability can become habitual.

"We can’t always have complete experiences, but sometimes we can and with practice, we can have them more and more."

Shinzen Young