When I posed this question it was to get feedback , and that it did. Could being present, simply mean being aware and sensitive to what’s in you and around you ,and not letting thought distort the moment? We tend to react based off our experience , and experience isn’t always reliable because the mind is fallible, and thought is based on memory.

I really enjoy Jason Silva's ideas on our need to experience awe and it's ability to plant us firmly in the here and now.

Time is relative and everyone's experience of it varies according to the "moment" which, is an infinitesimal hairline called NOW. Sitting in a friend's garden on a warm summer evening and drinking a glass of wine gives rise to an experience that is distinctly different than sitting in the dental surgery waiting room with a painful tootache. To a child an hour can seem like forever. When you are standing in a queue waiting to use a public bathroom a few minutes can seem like a very long time. If you are sitting by a river with a fishing rod on a nice day and there is nobody else nearby you may find that all thoughts about the past or the future fade and you feel in the present. We are always in the present regardless of our experiences or thoughts about it, even thoughts about the past or future occur in the present. I like the following excerpt from T.S Eliot:

"Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know."

It’s about what we pay attention to or what we focus on in each moment. Most of us are focused on the past or the future and miss what is happening in the moment.

That means sort of like a meditative state, or like a child..living in the present, without regrets or worries for the future. That gets rid of stress in a hurry.

To be as alive as possible.

It means to live the moment you're in. animals do it all the time.

Sometimes, like now, the present can be pretty damn complicated.

The present is not static. It is dynamic. As soon as you count to 1 the present has changed. It is a precise state of mind that has inspired countless books. It is also simply a point of reference that separates the past from the future.

For me being present is the notion that everything; every person, every sound, every feeling, every smell, very taste should be fully experienced at that moment. Past or future concerns are at best illusionary and at worst a distraction from the lesson and joy of that moment. Embracing the present moment puts you one step closer to real nirvana on earth.

Mindfulness meditation helps one rest their mind for a few minutes; thus, staying in the present means feeling your breath (count breaths to focus on the present), hearing soft music or silence, smelling whatever aromas are in the environment, feeling the temperature, your heartbeat, eyes blink, everything presently occurring. Do not think of the future, past, or other things.

the past has gone, the future is fantasy, in reality we only have this moment of the present. If you're not in the present then you're out of touch with your current reality

It is simple. Why get philosophical about it?

Some people romanticize about the past, which causes them to view their future cloudy. Staying in the present and viewing things in real-time can and is more valuable.