Being in the Present Moment
How to live in the present moment and experience the present situation.
The Present Moment
Living in the present moment is about cultivating awareness of the current situation happening. Having awareness is noticing senses and perceptions during a moment. Living in the present moment can feel difficult for some and may take practice.
Learning to switch off the part of thinking that is involved with other tasks, worry, future goals and past moments can seem nearly impossible at times. When the mind is in deep thought or repetition of thought it is referred to as rumination, often leading to an increase in stress levels if rumination is persistent. This however can be lessened and trained over time with a little practice.
Planning for the future and being reminiscent or thoughtful are wonderful attributes to have, striving to pay more attention to the current moment is not ignoring these thoughts or behaviors. Living and noticing the present moment is not an all-or-nothing behavior, but rather a way to engage with what the current moment is offering.
Having a balance or break during the thought process, certain times when you focus on one task and strive to devote your full attention to whatever that may be can be beneficial for cognitive functioning and memory.
Tips to Being in the Present Moment
- Try to focus on one thing at a time, and cut down on multitasking.
- Notice the sights, smells, temperature, and feelings of your surroundings
- Practice mindful meditation or focus on the breath
- Practice feelings of gratitude
- Surround yourself with people and places that make you feel good and support your health
- Let go of worrying about your performance, strive to do your best but don’t let it overtake your thoughts or mood
- Practice self-acceptance and allow yourself to move towards and address what could be bothering you instead of ignoring it.
- Savor the moment, indulge in the current. Give yourself enough time to truly enjoy the little things.
- Find your flow, being too rigid with yourself or your time can lessen productivity and increase stress, by releasing some of these expectations or loosening a strict schedule people can find a good rhythm and are often more productive
- Enhance your engagement, even in small tasks try to focus all your attention on what you are doing in that moment. This can be trickier than it seems but can help to build mindful behaviors and habits.
Why the Present Moment is Important
The health benefits of bringing awareness into daily life can be seen as a reduction in rumination of thoughts, lowering anxiety and stress levels, reduced rates of depression, an increase in cognitive functioning, an increase in working memory, more relationship satisfaction, and overall better quality of life.
Engaging with the Present Moment
Ways that help to bring people into engaging with the present can be something that inspires mindful behavior. Mindfulness is connecting with consciousness. Mindful meditation is a proven way that people have used to engage with themselves and begin to practice awareness.
“The term ‘meditation’ is so broad, and its therapeutic uses encompass many conditions including pain, mental health, and somatic conditions” (Behan, 2020). Meditations can be as simple as taking some time to notice the breath, focusing on this act has physiological benefits for the whole body which stem from the nervous system. Mediation or taking a quiet moment to focus on the breath allows the mind to slow and become in alignment with the natural process of breathing.
The goal is to allow thoughts to come into the mind, acknowledge them and not dwell on them, in essence letting them pass without judgment or a need to fully dive in.
What Studies Say
“In a study of people who had anywhere from one month to 29 years of mindfulness meditation practice, researchers found that mindfulness meditation practice helped people disengage from emotionally upsetting” circumstances “and enabled them to focus better on a cognitive task as compared with” the control group (Ortner et al., 2007) (Davis, 2012).
Mindfulness is often referred to as a state of mind or state of being. Mindfulness can be brought into daily life and activities, food behaviors as well as creative processes. “Other potential benefits of mindfulness include increased patience, intentionality, gratitude and body awareness (Rothaupt & Morgan, 2007)” (Davis, 2012). Some people find it helpful to use these mindful breaks as a way to take a pause or step back from what is going on to notice various intricacies of their thoughts, surroundings, and feelings. This practice is where a person’s sense of awareness becomes heightened. As many people are busy constantly with daily life tasks, work, family, etc., this practice can seem unrealistic; however, making a point to take just a few intentional breaths throughout these busy times is a way to keep on track without hindering a packed schedule.
“In a study of Chinese college students, those students who were randomly assigned to participate in a mindfulness meditation intervention had lower depression and anxiety, as well as less fatigue, anger, and stress-related cortisol compared to a control group (Tang et al., 2007). These same students had greater attention, self-regulation and immunoreactivity” (Davis, 2012).
In another study, it was found that the intervention group practicing meditation had higher measures of attention during task performance as well as cognitive flexibility (Moore and Malinowski, 2009).
Communicating boundaries with other people can also be a way to give yourself a mindful moment, this could look like expressing to someone “I am taking in what you’re saying but need some time to respond” or “I am feeling a little overwhelmed and need to take a quick break to re-collect myself”. Whatever the boundary may be or however uncomfortable it may seem to tell someone else, it can be in your best interest to simply state what is going on and give yourself the proper time to get engaged. For some, it may only be a minute or two but can ease stress and strain on both the mind and nervous system.
“Empirical evidence suggests that mindfulness protects against the emotionally stressful effects of relationship conflict (Barnes et al., 2007), is positively associated with the ability to express oneself in various social situations (Dekeyser el al., 2008) and predicts relationship satisfaction (Barnes et al., 2007; Wachs & Cordova, 2007)” (Davis, 2012).
The health benefits of bringing awareness into daily life can be seen as a reduction in rumination of thoughts, lowering anxiety and stress levels, reduced rates of depression, an increase in cognitive functioning and working memory, more relationship satisfaction, and overall better quality of life. Researchers found that using these mindfulness-based stress reduction tactics gave participants significantly less anxiety, depression, and somatic distresses compared with the control group (Davis, 2012). “Relatedly, the present research is also relevant to the proposition that mindfulness-based interventions and dispositional mindfulness produce psychological health benefits partly through positive emotions” (Kiken et ao., 2017).
Mindful awareness of the present moment enhances self-insight, morality, intuition as well as fear modulation, and immune functioning, these help to support a person’s overall improvement of wellbeing and reduction in psychological distress (Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Ostafin et al., 2006, Davis, 2012).
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References
Ackerman, Courtney E., MA, Researcher. How to Live in the Present Moment: 35 Exercises and Tools (+ Quotes. https://positivepsychology.com/present-moment/
Behan C. (2020). The benefits of meditation and mindfulness practices during times of crisis such as COVID-19. Irish journal of psychological medicine, 37(4), 256–258. https://doi.org/10.1017/ipm.2020.38
Daphne M. Davis, PhD, and Jeffrey A. Hayes, PhD. What are the benefits of mindfulness. July/August 2012, Vol 43, №7
Kiken, L. G., Lundberg, K. B., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2017). Being present and enjoying it: Dispositional mindfulness and savoring the moment are distinct, interactive predictors of positive emotions and psychological health. Mindfulness, 8(5), 1280–1290. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-017-0704-3
Sutton A. (2016). Measuring the Effects of Self-Awareness: Construction of the Self-Awareness Outcomes Questionnaire. Europe’s journal of psychology, 12(4), 645–658. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i4.1178
