The art of being present

„Stay present, stay focused on just being in the moment and actually celebrating it; if we don’t celebrate, we forget to build a memory and memories are what our lives are made of”- actress Julianne Hough

I sometimes find myself going for a nice relaxing walk and when I arrive home I ask myself: “Was that it?”. The truth is that I was out for a walk, I was physically present, I was moving, but I was not spiritually present and connected to that moment, for me to actually feel that I went out for a nice relaxing walk. That’s because when I usually intend to go for a walk, I do it under the motive that I want to take some fresh air and that I want to release my mind and thoughts; more often than not, it’s exactly the opposite, funnily enough. I am in the midst of nature for example, and here I am, thinking about what I am going to have for lunch, what I am going to do tomorrow or when I get home, what’s popular on Netflix, which book to read next, when to talk to my dearest friends etc.

It’s always and inevitably this bubble of thoughts that don’t necessarily nag me, but they just won’t allow me to stay present, to stay focused, as they are seemingly more important than living in the moment. What do I do then? If I have the time on my hands, I would then go for another walk, a short one this time ( doesn’t automatically need to be a long one to add value), or next time, I make myself aware in advance when locking the door for instance, that this time I need to simply disconnect from the outer world and see what’s in front of me: the trees, the birds chirping, that cute little dog coming to rub against my foot, that adorable cat meowing desperately for attention and me giving it attention because it’s too adorable and so forth.

Now, the art of being and staying present derives from the act of meditation; you meditate to keep your thoughts and distractions away for a while, to be present, to reconnect with yourself. You meditate to find your inner voice and to figure out that balance in life. But most importantly, people meditate to ultimately train their mind to be more in the present moment, to be aware of everything that surrounds them and what they feel in that particular moment: their respiratory senses, their breath, their muscles and basically all energy from their body transmitting different vibrations, and also the respective environment that gives off various feelings to them. You don’t need to close your eyes to meditate as a matter of fact, you can meditate in your own kind of ways, while being present.

„In order to experience something fully, you need to be fully aware of it; you need to be fully present and fully connected to that thing. Take a moment to digest, take it in and then move forward”- Julianne Hough

Nothing of what will add value in the long run comes easy; it is definitely not an easy task to suddenly start the practice of meditation. I am myself at the beginning of this journey of learning how to be more present; there is always a start point for whatever new thing we want to accomplish. I believe that anything we have set out to accomplish, we will ultimately accomplish as long as we give it enough time and are equipped with enough patience and determination.

„The fact that we spend each and every day on pilot mode, prevents us from expressing our feelings towards us and towards others as well”- former monk and purpose coach Jay Shetty

How many of you eat your breakfast, lunch or dinner while texting someone on your phone? How about studying for exams or reading and at the same time scrolling on Facebook to see who posted what or, again texting someone? When we watch our favorite series or movie on TV and we text again? Don’t get me wrong, it is nothing necessarily wrong with that...I do these myself sometimes and still learning to cut off this habit. But I believe we need to be aware and acknowledge that, when we are doing two things at the same time, we are undoubtedly neglecting one of them. I strongly believe that the awareness stage of our actions in general is essential, as from this point on, we get to decide whether we shall continue on this path or not, depending on what we truly value in life.

I can totally understand that we want to be as multitasking as we can possiby be; but for me, there is a difference in being multitasking at work, where you basically focus on various tasks and responsibilities within the same field/environment ( work environment in this case); whereas being multitasking by perfoming diverse tasks within two completely separate fields or areas of interest, namely texting someone ( the „quality time” kind of environment) and studying ( obviously the study environment). In this case just mentioned, we involuntarily have our attention span focused on either the studying part or the socializing part, but we just cannot invest in them both the same amount of energy as we would if we were to focus on one sole thing. I have done this myself multiple times in the past, and not just the combination of studying and texting, but others too, and the outcome was more often than not, a disappointing one.

In a nutshell, the art of mastering the present moment is difficult, but if you truly want to make improvements in this regard, it is only your will power which can slowly but surely guide you in this direction; again, it is a matter of what you value more and how you choose to properly invest your energy; choose wisely and invest wisely. We only have a present moment and there’s no turning back.