Direct religious experience arises only in the present, typically under rather ordinary circumstances. The memory of past religious experience soon fades, or gets distorted by subsequent events and desires. Anticipating the future with greed or fear interferes with direct religious experience. If the Divine is anywhere, it is right here, right now. Inattentive ways of living close the door to direct experience of the Divine.
Cognitive methods can facilitate practicing attention in daily life.
Learn to review your habitual thoughts so as to identify those thinking patterns that contradict the principle of attention. You may be sneaking glances at the television news while your child takes her turn. This way of living wastes your time and energy, and causes you to devalue the life that God has given you. When you believe your present activities are not important enough to deserve your full attention, and behave accordingly, your beliefs fulfill themselves. If you implicitly declare the events of your daily life unimportant, they will seem so, and seeming so, they become so.