How often have you got off the couch headed for the kitchen and then forgotten what you needed, OK, bad example the answer is always chocolate. Let’s try how often have you been driving your car, arrived at your destination and not remembered how you got there? Or walked so fast somewhere that you missed the spring bulbs putting on a show? Or eaten a meal without tasting it because you are thinking about other things?
We all do this, we get distracted, focused on other things, do mundane tasks on autopilot, basically live in the future or the past, but not the present. Our lives and worlds are full of actions. We are taught at a young age the value of multi-tasking, planning for the future and goal setting. Buddhist teaching refer to the monkey mind, a mind that leaps from thought to thought, idea to idea, unsettled, restless and easily distracted.
Psychological and emotional wellbeing require that we learn how to enjoy the present and not be ruled by the monkey mind. We are not our thoughts, thoughts are thoughts and you can control them. Have you ever met someone who is living in the present? Children do it easily, adults not so much. Watch a child play, they are totally engrossed, they are not thinking about what is going to happen in six weeks, or a month or 10 years. They are not reflecting on what happened last year or even a week ago. They are in the moment. Some adults have the same ability, you will have met one or two, a rare person who embraces the moment. You will know them when you have a conversation with them and they are actually listening and present, it can actually be quite disconcerting. They also exude a calm energy and positive attitude to the world, they know how to enjoy what life is offering them right at this moment.
But what makes some people able to enjoy the moment and live in the present and others constantly worry about the past or the future?
Psychologists Kirk Brown and Richard Ryan identified a personality trait called dispositional mindfulness, an underlying predisposition to being more aware and being able to bring attention to the current moment. You can measure dispositional mindfulness, the ‘Mindful Attention Awareness Scale’ has been validated across gender, cultures and ages. Knowing your baseline can be helpful if you are interested in increasing your ability to live in the moment.
People who score more highly on the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale tend to also report higher levels of self esteem, optimism and self actualisation and lower levels of neuroticism, depression and anxiety.
Fortunatly you can improve your ability to live in the moment through developing a personal mindfulness practice. This is a learnt skill, so even if you are not naturally disposed towards mindfulness you can improve your ability.
You can learn more through our 8 week mindfulness course which uses meditation as a way of developing a mindfulness practice.
