Do you sometimes feel time is flying? Do you get the impression you’re not enjoying life as you should?
Like anything else in life, mindfulness is easier said than done. With so much accessible information at hand, we may find ourselves overwhelmed with an endless horizon of possibilities everywhere.
SOME DECADES AGO, we would get hold of whatever came our way. To set the scene, good opportunities for improvement were thin on the ground, so the few courses available – even those which didn’t suit people to perfection – simply couldn’t go to waste. We would give them our full attention and settle our nerves. As for leisure time, it wasn’t any different. Material goods were scarce and fun was limited to our families’ means. Yet, we had the time of our lives jumping rope outside and playing ball games with our next-door friends. And it seemed as if time was on our side.
It is true that our brains are constantly rewriting our memories, creating doubtful representations of the past. It’s possible that life was just as busy then as it is today. However, never in history have we seen so many people suffering from STRESS, ANXIETY and LONELINESS.
A recent study conducted by researchers from Harvard University discovered that the average American spends 47% of his/her time focusing their attention on things which are not happening at the moment. The human being, with their incredible ability of thinking ahead, has turned this advantage into a hard-to-let-go overthinking habit. This staggering research, published by Science, aimed to prove that we are happier when our bodies and minds are aligned, even if only to (and here’s a lame example:) iron the clothes. The name of this study speaks for itself – A WANDERING MIND IS AN UNHAPPY MIND – and gets me thinking: How much of my time have I spent letting my mind wander around?
It comes as no surprise that most of us haven’t been able to find happiness however hard we try. We’ve been bomarbed with sensory stimuli every single minute: a whatsapp beeping sound, a LinkedIn notification of a job we could be interested in, a post-it note on the fridge door reminding us to buy a present for Saturday’s birthday party, the TV news reader telling us about a new virus variant. Simply put, we haven’t been LIVING IN THE MOMENT. Our minds are constantly wandering elsewhere other than the present, taking away the only real thing we possess: the here and now.
Finding myself in that boat, up to my eyes in work and pressure piling up, I’ve decided to set my heart on becoming more aware of what’s going on around me. Every time I notice my mind slipping away, I pull it back together by asking myself 3 questions: Where am I? Where is my mind? How do I feel? I believe this exercise is fundamental if we want to take more responsibility for the course of our thoughts. In addition, I have listed 5 simple but powerful activities to help us get more engaged in the present. Here they are:
Music plays an important role in our memories and emotions. It sets time marks and has all sorts of effects in our mood: it makes us relaxed at uneasy times and energized when we need to power up. It’s an international languague only some people can speak, even though everyone can understand. It brings back memories from long ago and makes new ones stick. It’s so enjoyable, in fact, that it might as well substitute chill pills. You can benefit from it on a daily basis when performing regular tasks which don’t require great mental activity. It will most likely help you in the process of becoming fully present.
I have heard (more than once) the idea that our bodies are our primary home. It makes perfect sense to me that cultivating self-care increases our knowledge of ourselves and the world around us. For one thing, it is known that exercising regulary brings about health as well as satisfaction. Also, I’ve come to realize that setting aside time to appreciate what we see in the mirror is a mindful practice intimately connected to our emotional state. Hand-picking clothing items and looking good are valuable ways of telling ourselves and other people that we are important. Self-care takes place in various ways. No matter what you do to care for yourself, remember: it’s your body (nobody else’s), so own it. Like we dust off the shelves in our home, switch out of your default mode and welcome your best version.
We tend to think about the miracle of life when we are struck by the arrival of a newborn. However, life happens all the time: from the simple germination of a seed to the blossom of a flower. Nature is a self-regulating system able to provide us with the essentials for a healthy physical and mental existence. When we acknowledge that is it nature that sustains life, we create a sense of gratitude, becoming less likely to take it for granted and naturally embracing practices that increase our personal well-being. We can deepen our connection with nature by using our senses: taking in its natural scents, appreciating fruits and vegetables or merely noticing the green spaces in our neighbourhood. Experiencing nature regularly is healing. It lifts our mood and makes us more active, grounded and focused.
The human brain is an intelligent machine. In order to function better, it learns to save energy by associating cues to actions and rewards. That prevents it from making simple choices over and over again, urging it to give priority to more complex decisions. That’s why it’s easier to choose comfort food when we’re sad or to stay in bed when it’s time to get moving. Although the formation of habits is a fantastic feature created by our minds, it can lead us astray. Statistically speaking, habits account for 40% of our behaviours. So if we want to make progress, we necessarily have to break a few patterns.
Most of the bad habits we acquire are easy to spot because they stand out as unhealthy practices, such as smoking and overeating. However, there are also those often swept under the rug and harmful all the same, such as consuming negative information. A 2012 study conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania shows that a few minutes of negative news in the morning can affect us emotionally the whole day.
Like our bodies need to be nourished with proper food, our minds need to be fed with ideas that foster positivity. Again, it’s our responsibility to control our thoughts. Whatever we feed grows, whatever we starve dies. How often do you say ‘no’ to bad habits?
It wasn’t until I heard The Long Time Academy on Spotify that I realized how the concept of time has changed along history. Long ago, when people worked the land for a living, time was perceived and measured by the duration of days and seasons. For most of our time on this planet, we planted, harvested and rested and, despite the hard manual labor, this meant we used to work less than half a year.
Then, came the Industrial Revolution, turning a skillful worker into any other in line of production. All that was needed was their time. Rumor has it that often times employers would move the hands of the clock to literally steal time of their employees. Before regulations on working hours were passed, it was common to find a number of people working 10 to 16 hours a day. It was only about 100 years ago (and after several violent protests around the world), that we had our right to an 8-hour working day guaranteed. Nevertheless, today we choose to work on the phone from our dinner table, allowing ourselves to divert our attention at invaluable moments of our lives.
In a world where time is money, we tend to underestimate the effectiveness of single-tasking. However, this practice helps us to be fully present wherever we are – especially at home. By doing one thing at a time, we avoid blind spots in our thinking and reduce the chance of making mistakes. When we single-task, we also redefine our sense of productivity, becoming less stressed, more aware of how our time is spent and more prone to setting priorities.
In conclusion, to live our lives to the fullest, it is paramount to savor every little moment. At birth, we were given limited time in this world and, from a simplistic perspective, our main duty is to make the most of it.
As I see it, these 5 practices listed above make a difference in our routine if we, consciously, choose to adopt them. In addition, it seems to me that life is a lot more meaningful when we feel appreciated and valued. Time is the most precious thing we can give someone so why not show appreciation for others by sharing with them some of our time?
If you have related to this topic and would like more input on it, check out my three favorite programs on Spotify: Radio Headspace, The Long Time Academy and Oprah’s Super Soul. If you have other recommendations, I would love to hear them all! See you soon 🙂
1 comment
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