Earlier today, I came across a blog berth on The School of Life blog berth about certain difficulties of being in the present. And lately, I’ve been having a conversation with my wife and son recently about the same topic, which is a slightly better way of saying that both of them don’t recall I am being present in the moment when I am with them.

So after learn countless articles that espouse the importance of being fully present in the moment for commanders as well, I guessed exploring this topic will be good for all of us as spouses and mothers as well as a leader in the workplace.

The struggle

This morning I predicted my spouse that I will figure out a direction to do simply that. So I started thinking here of some approaches that I can fill to be present in the moment, and when the blog affix sounded up in my feed, I was super elicited to read it.

But I was disappointed at what I predict. It appears that our mas, sentiment, and part physiology works toward keeping us away from the present and either in the past or in the future. What a bummer!

After doing a bit more research and going down my recognition alley to think about everything that I learned while researching for my volume, Thrive, I realised that this is a mechanism that was required for us to survive in the evolutionary past, and it remains with us today.

We need to think about what happened in the past so that we can learn from it and hopefully use that hear to survive in the future.

We need to think about the future( meeting with your boss or purchaser, a difficult conversation with your wife, son, or daughter, etc .) to be prepared with a strategy and report.

These might not be life-threatening needs, but nevertheless our physiology applies it the importance.

So, my question is still open: What strategies can I use to be fully present in the moment? Here are some that I are aiming to put into practice 😛 TAGEND Strategy 1: Recreate the cinema experience

When I think of moments in life when I am perfectly present, I think of watching a riveting movie. I am fully immersed in the narration and experience the movie by amply engaging with the story, which means that I don’t shortcoming the ability to be fully present. I exactly need the appropriate environment and the stance are permitted to do so. Too, when I am watching a movie in a cinema, I is definitely not invariably checking my phone, learn something, or doing anything else. The only focus is on the movie on the big screen. The theatrics and the speed of the fib helps. Too, when we watch a movie, we are using at least three out of our five appreciations- sight, bang, and touch- and, if you have popcorn and cola, perhaps a fourth.

So the first strategy is 😛 TAGEND

Do only one thing- be present. Put the phone on silent state. Put the book or notebook away.

Engage as many senses as is practicable. In most cases, it will be sight and sound. Be innovative and catch out other ways to include other gumptions( perhaps you are able to include a sense of touch or reek by introducing a chamber freshener or maintaining something at hand, maybe a stress ball or a glass of hot water, tea or chocolate.

Control the environment if possible. Keep the temperature a bit colder or hotter than what the fuck you comfortable with. Include some model of sensory inputs( as said above ).

There is a reason that most movies are around between 90 -1 00 mins long. That is probably the stretch of term that you can be fully immersed in the present.

The movie needs to be remarkably moving if it is longer or you need a smash around the 70 -7 5 time instant. So, don’t plan for anything where you are expected to be fully present for more than 90 mins. If needed, take a 10 or 15 -minute break. Go for a go, ideally in quality. Drink some spray, tea, or coffee. Take a bio disruption. Do something mundane before was coming to being fully present.

Strategy 2: Play a game of improv

There are times when we know that there is clear time limit to the time you have with your son or spouse or anyone else at work. For example, I know that my son has to leave for his school in 15 mins or that I need to leave for office in the next 30 mins.

In scenarios like this, when I don’t need to deplete a long time being fully present in the moment and only need to do so for a short period of time, I will tell myself and thereby to my recollection that I am frisking video games of improv, which requires complete immersion in the moment so that I is a response to whatever stimuli I get in that moment. I will use the principles of improvisational theatre to help me be fully present in those instants that I have with my family( or for that are important, my patrons, marriages or collaborators ).

This is a great strategy for impromptu gathers where you have not had the time to prepare the environment and yourself been sufficiently present.

Policy 3: All is well

In the movie, 3 Idiots, the protagonist reputation shares a floor, which I remember highly vividly. The fib get something like this 😛 TAGEND

In a small society, there was a watchman who was hired to guard the society. Each night, he would march all around the society and hinder announcing out “All Is Well” loudly. This used to give a lot of confidence of safety and security to the people living in the society and they would sleep in peace knowing fully well that they are being protected by the security guard. The thunderou chanting of “All is Well” helped them with their peace of mind. Then one day, there was a theft in the society. When they have begun clearing enquiries about the robber and spoke to the security guard, they found out that he was night blind and had not been possible to construe a being in the evening. He existed and allowed everyone to be at peace by his chant of “All is well.”

The moral of the narrative is that our brain is a very complicated thing and are able to obtain readily amused and typically anxieties for the most difficult, in any demonstrated situation( in general ). So, in order to stay happy and at peace, we need to calm this thing by endlessly telling it that “All is Well.”

We need to trick our imagination in thinking that all is well, rather than reason with it. And it turns out that it is easy to trick our intellects, easier than tricking anybody else. This exact policy can also be used to trick our brains in being fully present in the moment.

At a regular lull, keep telling ourselves- “All is Well.”

Approach 4: Checking in with my talisman

I actually be suggested that our ancestors were road smarter than we are when it comes to life wisdom. They thought about life, living and dying well much more passionately than we ever do. So, I reputed I can borrow one of the strategies from that our predecessors used to deploy a lot, that we dismiss rapidly as nothing but a assemble of superstition.

I am talking about having my very personal talisman which are helpful in me stay in the present moment. All the three strategies that I have listed above instantly facilitate me root myself in the present moment but are not really great at keeping me rooted in the present. This is where my charm comes into the picture.

The key here is to fully believe that the talisman will give me the power to stay sprung in the moment. The power of the charm is equal to the strength of my mind in the charm. This is another way for us to hack our physiology to allow us to by-pass all the challenges that it hurls our lane to distract us from being present in the moment. The other thing that is critical here is to create a habit of checking in with my talisman on a regular basis throughout the day.

Just as you need to dig a well much before you need drinking water, you need to have practised with your talisman much before you really need it to work. So, I am planning to set up an alarm on my laptop or phone to ping me once every 90 instants. Every time the alarm goes off, I will check-in with my talisman and ground myself to the present moment.

The Talisman could be anything- ring in your paw, order in your cervix, a bangle or a stress clod on your table or a painting chassis of your family on your desk.

This is a five-step process 😛 TAGEND

Step 1: Touch and feel the fact that there are the talisman

Step 2: Take 5 depth breaths

Step 3: Name the feeling “youre gonna” feeling( Happy, exasperated, pathetic, industrious, etc)

Step 4: Take 3 more penetrating breaths

Step 5: Ask the talisman to help you come back to the present moment

I know that this sounds most stupid thing to do, but I too believe that this is a good way to build the habit and prank my physiology at the same time.

The beauty is when I am with my family and my head starts to get confused, all I need to do is to touch and feel my talisman and the part wont will kick off and I can come back to the present moment( assuming that I have built up this attire successfully ).

Conclusion

In all my research, I have found that the biggest enemy of been sufficiently present in the moment is us and our physiology: We are not built to be fully present in the moment. So, in order for us to fully event the present moment, we need to find a practice that can help us circumvent our physiology firstly. The four strategies that I have listed here are my way of trying to do this.

Do you agree with my programmes? Do you have another strategy that works well for you? Please share them here so I can learn from you and experimentation to those used approaches as well. After all, this has been the biggest differentiator between us humans and all the other species around us. Let’s applied that to use!

A version of this berth was originally published on” Musings of a Neo-Generalist” and has been republished now with writers’ consent.

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