Be Present. But what actually is in the present moment? And what should we focus on?

There is a growing awareness that the fast paced life and our fascination with screens means that we are rarely in the present moment and that we are often distracted away from the simple joys in life.

But what is the present moment and how do we experience it?

Lets keep it simple.

We are able to experience a world inside of ourselves, and we are able to experience a world outside of ourselves.

A world outside of ourselves is (sort of) easy. When a bird chirps nearby, the sound arrives at our ears. When the wind blows we can feel it’s temperature and its pressure against our skin. When bread is being baked, the particles reach our nose. When we look we see.

The world outside of us is a constant happening, and we have the ability to tune into it.?

What makes this world harder is that our brain has a habit of noticing the outside world and then going on a tangent and so we may want to sit and listen to the birds and the brain might say “That’s a pretty bird. I’m doing well at listening to the birds, I wish I could pay attention to them more often. When I’m at work I could sometimes listen to them. That reminds me, I need to send that email.” All of a sudden we are not noticing the external world any longer.

Which brings us to

A world inside of ourselves. It is everything that we feel. We might feel pleasant, unpleasant, energised or drained. We can feel our heart beating, our inhalation and exhalation. We can notice physical discomfort (such as indigestion, a sore muscle, or needing the loo) or comfort (such as being well rested).

Our inside world gets complicated because we also feel our thoughts. Think of eating a lemon and we salivate, think of our proudest moment and we feel a rush of energy. Our thoughts happen to also exist in the present moment, we can’t turn them off, we can direct them, but they are a little unruly, and so we end up experiencing the feeling of our thinking much more often than we would like (unless we are having a particularly pleasant daydream/fantasy).

Also in the present moment is our bodies response to situations. If you had an argument an hour ago, then your tummy may still be tight and churning, you might have a metallic taste in your mouth and a tight jaw or teary eyes. Our encounters with the world get caught up in our body, and most encounters stay with us like the wake of a ship dissipating over time. Unless that is we bring them back using the power of our thinking/feeling.

(Note: There is a different story for trauma - see the work of Bessel Van Der Kolk for more information.)

And so when we decide to be present we have a lot of choice on our hands. We can focus on?

• The world happening outside of us, but the brain likes to go for a wander
• The world inside of us, but we also experience our thoughts, and our bodies carry the traces of lived experiences like the wake behind a ship?

And so the present moment is made very tricky due to our wandering mind.

What can help, is that we are able to train our attention over time.

We can use a hobby that fixes our attention to a process, we get to notice the world outside of us and inside of us, and when the mind wanders we can bring it back to our hobby. A hobby can be anything from arts and crafts, a sport, or yoga.

We can train our attention in a more formal manner through meditation. Like weightlifting for the mind we can put regular practice into strengthening our ability to holding our attention onto a specific point of focus, and become more skilled at catching it when it wanders and bringing it back to the task at hand.

The Secret Sauce

It is possible to focus on the present moment and still have a terrible time. The secret ingredient in turning present moment awareness isn't just on where we place our attention it is the quality of our intention. I will write about this more in future newsletters (and so be sure to subscribe), but the important thing is to cultivate a sense of self kindness and tenderness, this is noticeably different to self-criticism and roughness. Bring kindness with you into the present moment, and you get to experience it in a more peaceful and joyful way.

I hope you found this article interesting. If you would like to find new ways to become more present, then we will be running a Mindfulness, Yoga and Adventure Weekend Retreat in the Peak District on the 15th & 16th July. Check out our website for more details or get in touch.

Further notes:

For internal and external worlds, then look into "Interoception and Exteroception".

It is also worth looking into the work of Lisa Feldman Barrett, especially 7 and a half lessons about the brain and How Emotions are made for fascinating research about how the brain interprets the internal and external world to make predictions and create emotions.