mindfulness now

In the past six months, how many moments did you feel truly present in? How many of those hours can you recall a detailed memory of? Almost none is the truthful answer. During this time, you experienced much of life as I imagine someone with Alzheimer's does - no feeling, no memory, no connection. A state of being we wisely fear while ironically often inflicting on ourselves. Screens are the current scapegoat and maybe they are uniquely bad at fracturing our attention, but the problem is quite older. I’m guessing it began with the first person who had more than 48 hours of food and water. And unlike those who lived short brutish lives punctuated by premature death, you, like me, must stick this one out with few life-threatening events to distract us.

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives," Annie Dillard famously said. An observation that time is a linear progression of small moments, and more importantly, a moment is not just a tick of the clock; it's a building block of your existence. Fun to say, much harder to practice.

In my words, (which at least have some actionable utility Annie) your life is the sum of your smallest remembered experiences and the emotions attached to them. Which themselves are determined by how you apply your attention to your immediate surroundings. For most of us it's not that we’ve lost our attention to the wrong thing; it’s we have no attention. When you truly focus your attention to a moment or you fully experience it, you build memories and emotions good and bad around it. What percentage of your moments fit that definition of attention? We aren't lost on the wrong things; we are simply lost altogether.

Enter Mindfulness. Mindfulness is the means to seize control of your attention. It is a direct counter to this problem. Originating in the East, especially the Buddhist Eightfold Path, mindfulness is training to see clearly what's directly in front of us. It teaches us to experience each moment fully, without the clutter of judgment or distraction. And whether you believe in four pillars, eight-fold path, stoicism, or yogic something or other, mindfulness is the tool you must master if you are to master your attention. It is the first mover, the force multiplier, the one skill that when done properly makes all else easier.

This is about gaining control of your attention—not an obsessive or overbearing control - but in a manner that aligns with your deepest values and intentions. Nietzsche put it well when he said. “…become master over yourself, master of your own good qualities… acquire power over your aye and no and learn to hold and withhold them in accordance with your higher aims…”. Mindfulness hones this ability—it allows you to focus your attention [your life] on what matters to you.

What are the mechanics of a practice? Often you focus on your breathing during meditation, as your mind wanders your return to your breathing. You are practicing two critical components. Interoception – the awareness of yourself. And the ability to return to the self. You are becoming more aware of what your baseline self feels like. And how to return to it. Through this you build a greater ability to recognize when you have deviated from this baseline. When you are not present. And you’ve also been practicing the reflex to return to the self. This translates to a greater ability to remain in the present and a greater ability to return to it when you inevitably deviate.

This isn’t about adopting a trend, for one mindfulness is thousands of years old and been covered by every new, old, turban or beard shaman out there. Mindfulness is recognizing that life is composed of fleeting instances and without presence you are missing your life. Whether meditation, focused breathing, listening to Akira the Don’s musical adaptation of David Foster Wallace’s ‘This is Water’ while you work out. (one of mine) The practice just needs to work for you.

Imagine reaching the end of your life with a wealth of vivid, cherished memories. Imagine not. Unfortunately for you, if you've read this far, you can't go back. You might forget this article for a while, but it will pop into your mind from time to time—while you're drinking coffee, reading about a celebrity you don't care about, or half listening to your spouse. And in those moments, you'll now know that you're the person in the first paragraph, lost. But there's a silver lining. Awareness is the first step towards change. Start now.

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