Madeeha Syed

Discover the art of living in the moment with guidance from Meri Sehat. Embrace mindfulness and seize the present.

How To Live In The Moment

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Overview

It is the practice of rooting oneself in the present. It is a meditation-based practice but can also be a non-meditative practice that we can apply to the way we live. As a meditative practice, mindfulness exists in many forms. It is applied as a secular practice and is also a part of multiple ancient spiritual traditions like Buddhism.

As a meditative practice, the results of mindfulness can vary depending on the form of the meditation, how often it is practised, and for how long. However, there is increasing research to support the value of mindfulness in mitigating both physical and mental ailments, <a href="https://merisehat.pk/disease/depression">particularly depression</a>, anxiety, and mood disorders.

To practise mindfulness, it is not always necessary to adopt a meditative practice. While a formal practice can be very valuable, there are a number of ways one can become mindful in their everyday lives. 
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Mindfulness

<a href="https://merisehat.pk/article/the-role-of-mindfulness-in-maintaining-sexual-health">Mindfulness </a>can be as simple as noticing. Sometimes we tend to miss out completely on the world around us because we&rsquo;re caught up in our mind. We spend so much time worrying about the future or ruminating on the past that we forget to take in what surrounds us. 
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Take a minute to just notice your environment. If you&rsquo;re indoors, focus on the colour of the walls, notice the textures of the furniture. If outdoors, look up and give attention to the shapes clouds form as they float above you. How many shades of blue can you see in the sky? What colours are visible in the clothes of people around you? You can also go beyond sight. Notice the sounds entering your ears. You might hear a child laughing, a car horn two streets away, air rushing around the ceiling fan. You may even notice the smell of daal cooking in the kitchen, or a whiff of perfume from a passer-by.

Our senses are constantly being met with an endless variety of textures, colours, sounds, and smells. Simply taking a moment to notice these can become a powerful tool for grounding ourselves in the present. It can also help us appreciate the richness of our world and give perspective on our own worries. 
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Our physical container is the medium through which we interact with the present moment. Internally, our body functions like machinery with countless organismic processes going on from moment to moment. At any given moment, we&rsquo;re also receiving multiple physical sensations, arising from our body&rsquo;s interaction with its environment as well as organismic sensations like aches and pains. Becoming aware of these and giving them attention can enable us to detach from our thoughts and emotions, reminding us that we&rsquo;re embodied creatures. 
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Sit in stillness for a moment. Close your eyes if you&rsquo;re comfortable with that. Try to notice all the sensations that you feel on and in your body. Notice how the ground feels under your feet. Become aware of the point of contact between your body and the chair. Tune into any aches and pains that your body may be experiencing. Give these parts of your body the attention they may be asking for.

Our bodies often carry the pain of both our physical existence as well as our emotions. Listening to what our body is telling us can often help us understand what we need from ourselves from moment to moment. Perhaps we are hungry and need some nutrition. Conversely, a feeling of being overstuffed could be our que to put down the bag of chips we may be mindlessly snacking on. Pain in our shoulders could be telling us that we are carrying stress. A headache might be an indicator that we are tired and would do well with a nap. Embodied living helps us take a break from our emotions and thoughts to tend to our physical being. 
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A good starting point for embodied awareness can be simple breathing exercises. Find a quiet space and find a comfortable seated position to find stillness in. Simply focus on your breathing. Notice the air entering through your mouth or nose as your inhale. Feel your body expand with air. As you exhale, notice the sensation of the air leaving your body as your chest deflates. 
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You can sit with your breath as it comes naturally. If comfortable, you can also attempt to mindfully direct your breathing. There are a number of breathing exercises you can try. You could simply try to breathe a little deeper, elongating the duration of your inhales and exhales. Experiment with taking a pause between the inhale and exhale. Perhaps try to direct the inhale through your nose while breathing out through the mouth.

A quick Google search will bring up countless breathing techniques for you to try. Some of these have proven to help with physical and mental ailments like anxiety. Other techniques don&rsquo;t have conclusive research to back them up. Regardless, focusing on and directing your breathing can be an important tool for embodied present moment awareness. 
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Regular movement can often prove to be a meditative practice. Any form of movement, from <a href="https://merisehat.pk/article/decompress-your-spine-with-acroyoga">yoga </a>to strength training, can help you ground yourself into your body. As one focuses on the technique involved in a movement or series of movements, one is invariably brought into the present moment. Whether you&rsquo;re doing a bicep curl or a downward dog, try to notice how the movement feels in your body. Bring your attention to the muscles that are being engaged.

Even running and walking can be meditative if we practise them with awareness. Notice your feet as they come into contact with the ground and then lift up again. Breathe with awareness, whether your breaths come in short, shallow gasps or long, deep inhales and exhales. The idea is to move with an embodied awareness so that, just for a little bit, we can shelve whatever worries and grief exist outside of our movement practice. 
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It may seem counterproductive, but mindfulness can often look like detaching from the physical present for a moment and tuning into our mind. After all, our thoughts and emotions also unfold from moment to moment in the present. Trying to repress or ignore our thoughts can actually lead to them becoming more intrusive. When we turn away from our emotions, they may resist and resurface repeatedly or, in extreme cases, come to a boiling point. Often what we need to do is resolve our feelings and emotions. Turning to them, tending to them, and giving them attention, they are asking for can often help resolve them. 
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Tuning into your mind can be as simple as sitting with your eyes closed for a few minutes and noticing what comes up. Attempt to listen to what your mind is saying and examine why you may be feeling the way you do. Sometimes, we might be pursuing a course of action that is not right for us and our unconscious mind is more aware of this than we consciously are. Let your thoughts and feelings serve as a guide for you and they might tell you what you need from yourself or from a situation. 
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Be compassionate towards difficult feelings and thoughts, rather than antagonising them and trying to detach from them. Remember that giving attention to your thoughts is not the same as holding onto them. It&rsquo;s also beneficial to remember that thoughts and feelings are temporary. Thinking of them as clouds, drifting across the sky of your mind. Don&rsquo;t clutch onto them tightly and you might find that they come and go with ease, floating through your awareness. 
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Bottom Line

Often, we are so caught up in our thoughts and emotions that we don&rsquo;t even pay attention to the things we are doing. In this way, many human beings are constantly multitasking. Our attention is divided between the task we&rsquo;re performing and the multiple worries flying around in our mind. Practising present moment awareness includes moving through the world with awareness and giving the due attention to what it is we are doing. 
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The next time you sit down on your laptop to begin a task, put your phone away and on silent. If you feel the urge to check your phone, acknowledge it without acting on it. When you&rsquo;re reading a book and find worries about the future coming up in your mind, acknowledge them but don&rsquo;t hold onto them. Try to continue reading and focus on the words on the page. In your next conversation, try to pay close attention to each word as the other person says it. 
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