Why is it so important to be "here and now"?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

When it comes to this, many ask - how is it, live in the present and be in the here and now? Let's start with this.

Do a simple experiment. Right now, reading this article, do you feel your body? Or did you remember him when I suggested thinking about it?

Or, for example, stand up and try to get an object off the shelf. Find a high shelf to reach for the item. Where are you at? Where is your consciousness while you are trying to get an object? Most of them are already on the shelf. Or even already doing something with this item. But in fact, in your present, in Here and now, you are still stretching - and that's it!

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When you go to the store or to the car to drive to work, where is your consciousness? Most often - in a store, at work, but it so happens that in a completely foreign place - at a doctor, on a romantic date, which may (or may not) be only in the evening, or even at a resort where you will go a month later. two, but not on the street you are walking on.

Try to count how often you are busy with exactly what you are doing now? What percentage of the time do you live in the present?

A common picture - a person walks down the street and thinks about a partner, work, children, parents, offenders, the future, the past, anything, just not about what he is doing now. A person washes dishes, plays sports, relaxes on the couch, and is at the same time anywhere, just not in the present moment.

It's simple: if your consciousness is focused on what you are doing at this very moment, you are in the here and now entirely. If it is busy with something else, you are not in the present.

At best, your body is here. Torn away from consciousness, which, in turn, is in another place. Just as the body is not very comfortable without consciousness, so consciousness cannot do anything without the body, without the energy of its sensations.

Therefore, the work of the body is performed in such a case in vain, and the work of consciousness does not always bring satisfaction.

More often than not, everything ends with a constant rotation of consciousness in some familiar circles, but in this rotation there is rarely an adequate solution to a boring problem, and a body thrown in the "autopilot" mode is not able to fully rest, just as, incidentally, it is not able to fully work in isolation from consciousness …

I don’t argue, there are times when we don’t want to do a certain thing, but we have to. Not someone else needs it, namely us.

Let's say you need to clean, you want cleanliness, but you don't like washing floors. I can say, of course, that if you start to listen to the sensations of the body, to be aware of which muscle groups are working, and washing the floor can become an interesting experience. But if you really don't like it at all - well, maybe it's time to think about an outsider in your case. And your choice regarding this activity will be as follows.

But a conscious choice regarding a few not very favorite activities is one thing, but almost constant and uninterrupted stay somewhere else, without any awareness of this fact, is a completely different case.

Why is this so, and what is the risk of being separated from life in the present?

Man, unlike animals, has the ability to think abstractly. This in itself is neither good nor bad. In some moments it can help a person to solve his problems, and in others it can interfere.

But now we are talking about those situations, and even more - about such a way of life, when an excessive emphasis on abstract thinking prevents a person from living in the present, to solve current problems as efficiently as possible.

Placing branches in the fire, I drew attention to one of the actions of the Shaman who was preparing the “table”. He took out a boiled chicken egg from the package, which turned into ice in the forty-degree frost, and, almost without looking, with one blow of a knife split it into two equal parts.

Sitting down, I tried to split a couple of eggs with my heavier knife, then another three with the Shaman's knife. I did not manage to split a single egg evenly and without crumbs. This led to the idea of some special skill of the Shaman.

- Did you often crack eggs like that?

- I don’t remember. And you don't often bring them.

- And how did you learn to split so evenly?

- Didn't study. The same will come to mind.

- But how do you inject them?

- Look. (The shaman casually struck with my knife not across, but along the last whole egg, which split into two equal halves.)

- What's the secret?

- We have different actions.

- What is the difference?

- When I act, I act entirely. And you - in parts.

- What parts?

- For example, one part of you is not sure that you can cope with the egg, the other thinks that the split eggs will not disappear in the cold, the third is generally in Magadan with the problems of your own eggs.

“But my actions can be more complex than your situational ones.

- Your actions can only be more blurred. For example, instead of accurately hitting the ball, you are hysterically hitting your fingers. Such a dirty trick makes a person weak and old.

- What can I do to learn to act like you?

- Irrelevant. You can, for example, prick eggs. The main thing when you prick eggs - if the eggs, and do not catch the crows.

Serkin "Laughter of the Shaman"

Exhaustive, isn't it?

The ability for abstract thinking sometimes plays a bad joke with a person: it prevents him from living in the present, tears him away from the reality he is engaged in right now, and turns his actions into ineffective.

Here are some typical customer complaints that I think many will recognize themselves:

“When I have sex, I sometimes think about how I look, what the partner thinks of me, whether he / she likes my body, whether the partner is happy enough with what is happening, whether it will not be excessive to offer this or that, I remember the past partners, old grievances / comparisons / questions emerge, I think about what will happen if suddenly it does not work out …."

The result is erectile dysfunction, orgasm, dissatisfaction, fears, tension, and generally poor quality sex.

“When I’m going to present my idea to the boss / I’m interviewing, I think about what the boss will think about me, whether it’s appropriate to talk about this and that, past failures come up, thoughts about what will happen if the idea is not liked / not I will pass an interview, what to do next …"

The result is a failed interview, an idea not considered, a lack of interest in your personality and devaluation of your proposals, general disappointment in yourself and a drop in self-esteem, which further deepens fears at the next interview or when talking with superiors.

“When I get into a new company, I try to imagine what I need to do and say in order to please people, I think over my lines, imagine what I can be, worry about what will happen if the situation repeats when last new year I felt like I was superfluous in the company, trying to analyze what I did wrong…."

The result is alienation of people, coldness, feeling superfluous again, sad thoughts, loss of self-esteem, despair and disappointment instead of positive emotions.

What are the characteristics of all these situations? A person is anywhere, just not in the present - in past situations, in dreams and plans for the future, in fantasies (that is, in general in an abstractly existing reality), in various assumptions “what if”….

The trouble is, the emphasis on this way of seeing the world in most of us is brought up by our parents and our culture. How many of you in childhood and adolescence were told: "think with your head, try to foresee the consequences, maybe this or that!" - and give examples of their own or someone else's, more often negative, experience.

The thought itself is not so bad. Where you can think about the available information, estimate the chances, reasonably assess your capabilities and the reactions of other participants in the situation - this can be done.

But the problem is that it has a limit. Not a single, even the most perfect analytical tool can take into account all the variables of this world. No one person is able to predict all the consequences. Not a single action, taking into account all possible inclusions of reality, lends itself to one hundred percent prediction.

Reality is changing. Live in the present- constantly discover something new for yourself. If your past experience says “I have an example of failure,” it means that you just have such an experience. This means that you can draw some conclusions from this experience, perhaps - realize how not to act anymore.

But this experience does not mean at all that the situation will repeat itself. Moreover, if you are open to changes in reality, then you can guarantee yourself that everything will be somehow different. The old way will be only when you yourself expect the usual, albeit unpleasant, turn of events.

Many people are misled by everyday and well-oiled actions: the road along the usual routes, where, it would seem, nothing changes, the schemes of life that seem to some to be safe - "learn from this and you will always have a piece of bread", schemes of life in general - “Raise a son, plant a tree and build a house,” and so on. In some cases, they actually work. But they don't work very often safely.

Remember how many of your plans were ruined by any "force majeure"?

Starting from global - death of loved ones, serious illnesses, sudden loss of money, business crashes or political and economic crises, to a banal cold that happened "just" on the most crucial day, no less banal being late for a train or, in general, an icicle that suddenly fell on the roof of a car. …

The illusion of control is exactly what prevents us from living in the present, what makes us sometimes "drive" in various mental constructions, which, it would seem, are designed to protect us from the vagaries of unpredictable reality.

In fact, an attempt to control events distracts us from direct reaction to the real world and makes the reaction itself at times completely ineffective.

After all, as we have already said, it will not work to predict everything 100%, especially on the basis of someone else's experience, and your own too. It is much more reliable to try to rely on your spontaneous reaction. Which is possible only when you are in the present.

I don’t want to say that you don’t need to think at all.

The difference between conscious, genuine thinking and pouring from empty to empty is obvious: when you really think, you try to build the whole chain of problems, tasks - where did it start, how it developed, how are certain arguments that you use in your judgments are justified? Does the question have a history (your own or in general in the history of people or culture, philosophy, science, religion), how it relates to your feelings, what conclusions can you draw from your experience.

This is reflection and should be treated with respect.

Fragmented and haphazard thinking is quite another matter. Which is not inclined to delve into research, logic, history and analysis of your experiences. Unsystematic thinking is just jumps of the mind from subject to subject and the inability to concentrate on anything for more than a minute, two, three, and alas, as practice shows, this is what is usually called the verb "think" ….

The conscious process of thinking should take its place and time. If, for example, you need to think about a personal problem - find a comfortable body posture, create the necessary level of silence (or put on the music you need), prepare paper and a pen to write down important things, ask you not to be disturbed, or leave people somewhere on nature, in a secluded place.

And do not forget to agree with yourself about how long you will think. If, for example, the allotted hour has passed, and you haven’t come to anything, there is no point in continuing to “drive” the problem in a circle in your head. This means that you are not yet ready to solve it.

And if you plunge into the present, into the reality that is happening to you here and now, most likely, the answer will come faster than if you continue to scroll through the "hackneyed record" in your head.

If you are engaged in intellectual work or periodically need analytical processing of one or another important information for you, is it necessary to completely disconnect from the sensations of the body? Perhaps they, too, will be able to tell you some steps in solving your problems? After all, you are the whole. It is much more productive to work with all of yourself than with a part.

Why live more than half of your life in different “maybe” and “what if”, if you can go and find out how it will actually be, and if it’s not time to find out, just do what is relevant right now, or relax fully?