TL;DR: Spending too much time thinking about the past or the future can distract you from what’s actually happening in your life currently and can be detrimental to your health. Try to stay in the present moment as much as possible.
“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh
Intro
Has something like this ever happened to you before? You have a rough day at work, your boss completely chews you out about a mistake you made or how you haven’t been performing very well lately. Later that night you go out to get a drink or two with friends to blow off some steam but no matter what you do you just can’t seem to get your mind off what happened earlier that day. You keep running through the situation in your head over and over again. What you did wrong, how you could have done things differently, what your boss said to you. Your friends keep trying to talk to you but you constantly have to ask them to repeat themselves because you’re not really listening. You’re physically at the bar, but your mind is still at the office. Before you know it, the night’s over and you feel like you just missed the whole thing, even though you were there the whole time.
This article will go over the idea of being present. Being present, in essence, means that you will be focused on what is currently going on around you, rather than stressing about the past or worrying about the future.
When you’re present you will mentally “be” where you currently physically are. You will no longer be missing out on what’s happening in your life. You will be “there” and engaged in the things going on around you.
Why be Present?
The reasoning for being present almost goes without saying. It allows you to live your life as it currently is, rather than living in a different time than you are currently in. You no longer will be missing out on things going on around you. Being engaged will boost both your productivity and your overall enjoyment of life. Being present will significantly reduce how much you worry about things.
Worrying is probably one of the most unproductive things you can do. It takes up your time and energy, makes you feel bad and anxious, and it doesn’t help with anything. Say, for example, you’re afraid of going to the dentist. You know you have an appointment coming up, so you start to worry. You start to think ahead of how awful it’s going to be, how uncomfortable it’s going to be having all those tools stuck in your mouth. How much it’s going to hurt if you have to get a cavity drilled. Every night leading up to the appointment you lie awake, worrying about it. You’re losing sleep and because of this you feel like shit for the whole week. You’re letting worrying for the future ruin your present moment that you’re currently living in.
Eventually, the dreaded day finally comes. You go in for your appointment, it’s uncomfortable for about an hour as they do all their cleaning and tests on you, then you walk out the door, feeling relieved to have it over with. You just let one hour of actual discomfort ruin your entire week by worrying about it.
Now imagine if you had done things differently. Imagine if you had just lived every day in the present moment leading up to your appointment. Your Monday would have been a lot less terrible because you got enough sleep the night before. You could have gone out and enjoyed Taco Tuesday with your coworkers. You could have been focused and crushed the gym on Wednesday. You could have had a great week, and then gone in for your same hour of discomfort at the dentist. Sounds a lot better than a shit week and then an hour of discomfort on top of it.
That is the beauty of being present. Uncomfortable moments are going to happen in life, it’s unavoidable. By being present we only have to be uncomfortable in the actual uncomfortable moments, i.e. in the dentist chair, rather than also during the time before the discomfort. Being present allows you to reclaim YOUR time and YOUR moments. They belong to you. Don’t let things from the past or the future steal them away.
Worrying is no joke. If left unchecked it can begin to have serious detrimental effects on your health. WebMD [1] sites the following consequences as the result of excessive worry.
- Suppression of the immune system
- Digestive disorders
- Muscle tension
- Short-term memory loss
- Premature coronary artery disease
- Heart attack
How to be Present
The best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew – Robert Burns
In a later article on mindset, stoicism, we discuss the importance of not letting things that are beyond your control affect how you’re feeling internally. This same principle is very applicable to being present.
The past is beyond your control. It has already happened, so unless you have found a way to travel through time there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Because of this fact worrying about the past will do absolutely nothing except to make you feel bad. A key start to beginning to be more present is to accept that the past is the past and it can’t be changed. This is not to say that you can’t learn from the past, but you need to make sure that you don’t get stuck dwelling on the past. Learn what you need to learn, and then move on.
To a lesser extent, the same can also be said about the future. No matter how much we plan and plan and plan, the future is always, to some degree, out of our control. The further we look into the future, the more out of our control it really is. Nobody can really say, with certainty, what the world is going to be like in 20 years, or even 10, or 5, or 2, or 1 year for that matter. This, again, is not to say you can’t and shouldn’t make plans for the future, you just need to accept that until the future becomes the present, it will always be out of your control to a certain extent. This is where teachings from stoicism come into play.
A stoic mindset is a great one to have when looking to become more present.
Below are a few exercises that you may use in order to make yourself more present in your day to day life:
- Meditate
Meditation is a great exercise for becoming more present. It’s hard not to be present when you are doing “nothing”, not even thinking. It is recommended to take some time every day to meditate and be present. For more information on meditation and instruction on how to meditate please check out our article here.
- Journal
Pick up a pen, open a notebook and just write down how you’re feeling. Physically, mentally, spiritually at that exact moment. Really think about how you are then and there. Try to be as aware of yourself as possible. Once you are done, read it back to yourself. Try to appreciate your self feeling and self understanding that you have just come up with.
- Disconnect
One of the biggest reasons why it’s so challenging to be present in this day and age is because of technology. We constantly have our phones dinging and buzzing and lighting up with messages, emails and calls. This is constantly pulling us away from the present. Spend some time away from your phone and other communication methods regularly. Try leaving it home when you go out, or at the very least put it on silent so you can be engaged and present in what you are doing. When we, the creators of this website, have our meetings, we usually put all our phones in a stack away from us, that way there is no temptation to sneak a quick peek at them.
- Reconnect with Nature
When you’re at work or at home it’s so easy to get distracted by all the things in life. There’s emails to be answered, calls to be made, appointments to go to, chores to be done. Regularly take some time to get out into nature, leaving the phone and all other distractions at home. Focus on how good it feels to be out walking and getting exercise. Really take in the beauty of everything that you are seeing. It’s almost hard not to be present when you are in the great outdoors
- Remind yourself
“Here and now, boys” – Aldous Huxely
This is the simplest, yet probably the most effective of them all for being more present. Come up with a little slogan to remind yourself to be present. It can be as simple as “Be Present”, or “here and now.” Every time you start to feel yourself become distracted, stop, close your eyes, take a deep breath and say your slogan to yourself. When you open your eyes you should find that you’re already back in the present moment. Do this over and over and over again until it gets picked up by your subconscious mind and the magic of autosuggestion will begin to repeat the slogan to you.
Conclusion
Being present is where you should spend the majority of your time. Living in the past or too much in the future is unproductive and can even be detrimental to your health. If you find yourself not being present enough in your day to day life try implementing some of the practices discussed in this article into your daily routine.
References:
[1] https://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/how-worrying-affects-your-body#2
