It seems paradoxical that all the things, the pains, the miseries one spends a life escaping from are felt in the present while there is the claim that it is that being in the present one finds true serenity.
The reconciliation comes with the understanding that to actually, fully, be in the present one has to change ones relationship to the feelings. Instead of running away from them or wanting them to be different they are understood to not be ‘me’, ‘mine’ or ‘my self’. Instead they are ephemeral processes that come and go and the misery is dependent on how much one wants them to be otherwise.
Having come to such an understanding there is a general ‘letting go’ and there, in the now, is peace.
So, that can be an intellectual understanding which presents the mundane experiential paradox mentioned earlier. To make this understanding real, in the sense that a wisdom born of experience is necessary, in order to overcome what may be years of clinging to ‘not now’, retraining is needed. To just accept for a moment there is something to be in the present doesn’t overturn a lifetime of avoiding it. This is what mindfulness is all about.
Every moment of our lives we are breathing. This is a truth that is happening right now. So, understand the breath as a door to the present. If one is continually mindful of the breath then one is continually mindful of the present, albeit a simple little part of the totality of now. Yet that is a door to the totality. Which means it is a door to all that is to be let go of in order to be at peace.