Today’s attitude is “Being Present.” I think this is the most fundamental and challenging aspect of Mindfulness. Being able to stay in the present moment requires effort 🙂

Dino taught me how to stay present. Actually, the most aware and present living beings are animals. Every morning we go for a walk. Every time we go, he smells the grass he steps on, smells the air, occasionally lifts his head to look at me, and tries to discover new streets. While I’m walking with him, I’m thinking about the email I’ll write when I get back, the payment I’ll make, the menu I’ll give to my client, the conversations in the WhatsApp girls’ group, or the issue that angered me yesterday. Then, when I leave him at home and go out, I miss him. But why don’t I enjoy the moment when Dino is with me, when we’re together? That’s how my first attempts at staying present began.

As human minds, we are constantly either in the past or the future. We label events as pleasant or unpleasant and usually remember those. We don’t even notice the neutral/everyday things. Isn’t it a shame for the moment we are living in right now? 🙂 Why do we ignore it?

According to research, when our minds aren’t physically present, our mood is usually negative. For example, watching TV while eating, thinking about what to wear while brushing our teeth, or thinking about what happened at the office while walking. However, thinking about those things at that moment doesn’t benefit us at all. How many of us are aware of the route we’re taking while driving or walking to the subway? Actually, the mind’s job is to generate thoughts and wander. This is normal. The more it wanders, the stronger we become by noticing it and bringing it back to the present moment. It’s like increasing the weights we lift at the gym. As the weights increase, our bodies get stronger. The same is true for our minds. If you’re saying, “I can’t do it, a thousand thoughts are running through my head at once,” then mindfulness exercises are perfect for you. You’ll soon become stronger 🙂 I used to be like that too, and my mind still wanders, but now I’m making an effort to pay attention to it. I say, “You’ve wandered too much, come sit next to me for a while.” Our intention is to bring our minds back to the present moment whenever we notice them wandering. Life is actually only about the moment we are living. While we dwell on the past and the future, we constantly miss the present moment. Yet, not even a single split second can be repeated.

Would you like to try inviting your mind to this moment? 🙂

Added 03/11/2019

I mentioned “staying in the moment” above. Many questions arose: “That’s all well and good, but how do we stay in the moment?” Before moving on to the third approach, I wanted to explain this while the topic is still fresh. It’s actually that simple 🙂 Don’t worry, we’ll all stay in the moment 😃

Yesterday, something happened that angered and upset me a bit. Today, the topic came up, but on the way home, I realized I was replaying yesterday’s event in my head (see, I’m in the past) and then thinking, “This will happen, that will happen, if this happens, I’ll do this this week, if that happens, I’ll do that” (see, I’m in the future). There’s nothing I can do about what’s already happened. I’m creating unnecessary anxiety about something in the future that I don’t know will happen, and my mood is unhappy. We all experience this many times a day because the mind generally records negative memories. To take precautions if it happens again in the future. It’s a kind of survival mechanism.

The moment I realized this, I immediately returned to the present. Why was I unhappy about things that hadn’t happened yet? At that moment, my 3.5-hour journey home was almost over, I was about to get rid of those shoes that felt like needles in my feet, and I should have been happy about that.

So how do we return to the present moment? It’s very easy. By following our breath, which is always with us, giving us new life with every inhalation. Whenever you feel lost, immediately focus on your breath. Follow the movement in your body with each breath. Your rising chest, your swelling abdomen, the warmth or coldness of the air passing through your nose. Following your breath for a while will bring you back to the present moment.

Breathing is always with you, so you don’t need to look for anything special. I can do it anytime, anywhere: in the post office line, on public transport, walking down the street. Nobody notices 🙂 especially if I’m wearing sunglasses 😎 Nobody notices, but you immediately detach yourself from that thought constantly swirling in your head and the feeling it leaves you with.

Of course, your mind might wander while following your breath. That’s normal. Even noticing it is a practice. As I said yesterday, the more we wander, the more we come back, the stronger we become 😍

I’ll continue with the third approach tomorrow 🙂