Power in the Present
Do you ever get overwhelmed by your worries, feelings, thoughts or just feel like your brain becomes cluttered? Present moment awareness is something many of us know we need to do-just stop and be aware of whats going on in our lives. But how often do we actually do it?
We spend so much of our day having thoughts about tasks that we need to do for work, school, and taking care of our families. Many of us also spend a significant amount of time having thoughts about what other people think of us, events that have happened sometime in our past and try to make sense of those, and we also have thoughts about the future and whether or not we are headed in the right direction with our lives. And its alottttt.
Our mind is thinking and working non-stop and if were not careful, we can allow ourselves to get really caught up in our heads and even worse- miss out on some really important things to us. So what is an alternative? Simply put, it is the practice of really being here, and not somewhere else. Really dropping into nothing else but what is happening in the moment.
Imagine you had a little clear jar and you could place all of your thoughts, worries, fears inside of it momentarily and screw a lid on top to keep all those thoughts, and frustrations from spilling outside of it. There they are-everything in your head, except now you can see them exactly for what they are. You might notice that some of them are bigger in size than others and perhaps take up more space in your head. Other thoughts are smaller but frequent so maybe they look more like tiny specs of dirt chilling at the bottom of the jar, some might be pretty big and also really frequent so they tend to take up even more space and fill a good portion of the whole jar like a liquid would. Take a 1-2 minutes to think about what else is in the jar, how much space it takes up, what colors and types of shapes do they have? & then keep reading. (& really do it)
If you just saw all of your different thoughts in that jar after reading, then you have already experienced what it can be like to really be here, in the present. Did you notice that it’s not about throwing the whole jar away, or even recycling the jar to replace it with something new and improved. It is about just looking at whatever is there-big or small, many or few. Sometimes when we are trying to be present during stressful situations, it’s so hard not to let our jar drop open and spill the contents all over the place- we become unable to separate and see everything for what it is- its all mixed together and makes us feel overwhelmed, and unable to move forward. The good thing is that when this happens you can always pick up the pieces and place them back in the jar. You might even take a paper towel to dry up the liquid and place that in there too. Imagine that doing so is kind of like a close friend of family member wiping away your tears or worries. This is because being in the present moment involves a quality of kindness and compassion. You can’t be aware of your experience (including thoughts, feelings, sensations & worries) and also be so caught up in criticizing yourself, or whatever it is that might be coming up. So, to be present is to be kind to yourself which also makes it more likely that you will be kind and emphatic towards others.
Being aware is actually more simple than we think (this is because we humans tend to really complicate things if you weren't aware of this -pun intended!) We might say “I’m going to be more aware.” Or “I’m really trying to do this mindfulness stuff” pretty soon after might come a few other thoughts like “I’m just not good at this” or “ this isn’t working out for me.” This is super common-its because we are forgetting the part where we dry everything up, pick up the pieces and put them back in the jar. And there’s no limit to how many times you can do this either- do it as often as the things fall out of the jar. Also, thoughts like “I’m not doing this right and suck at mindfulness” can be placed in the jar whenever they come up- these thoughts aren’t really different from the other ones. You can look at them and notice how much space those take up too.