In this article we will analyze in detail what the “here and now” technique is, what benefits it can bring, and why you need to learn mindfulness in general.
The thing is that a modern person spends most of his life in automatic mode, missing the “here and now” state. Many actions are performed at the level of reflexes and habits, while the brain is busy chewing the “mental cud.” While performing morning hygiene rituals, we think about what we will eat for breakfast. While brewing tea, we plan the start of the working day. In the office we want to quickly leave for lunch, and while eating, we, in turn, dream of getting home as quickly as possible.
Thus, the autopilot mode is gradually activated and consolidated, in which a person is not aware of his actions at all. He goes to work, thinking, has lunch, leafing through the news, drives, worrying about the upcoming vacation. And at the same time he never enjoys what he is doing right now.
Scientific research confirms that during the day, on average, about 60 thousand thoughts come into a person’s head, most of which are secondary. This means that all day long a modern person is busy chasing the same experiences, anxieties and plans in circles. Is thinking like this good for your mental health? We can confidently say that no.
Conscious living and its benefits
The anxieties, worries and fears that we scroll through our heads are not good for our health. Over time, they can lead to anxiety disorder, neurosis, symptoms of vegetative-vascular dystonia, nervous exhaustion and even depression. Therefore, you should start taking care of your emotional health today. A conscious life is good because with it a person really enjoys what he is doing at any given moment.
The “here and now” technique can be very widely used in real life and, with regular practice, brings excellent results:
- training the skill of returning to the present moment, the joy of being in it;
- reducing anxiety and improving mood;
- development of concentration, concentration on one’s activity;
- the ability to work with your subconscious, beliefs and emotions.
The “here and now” technique is one of the most common recommendations from psychologists for neuroses and anxiety disorders. Such mindfulness techniques help to return attention to the present, to understand that constantly being in the future or past brings nothing but emotional overstrain. By learning to notice the present moment, a person can significantly improve his mental and physical state.
The most common advice turns out to be the most harmful
Most motivation gurus tell us to live in the here and now. They say that only the present moment is important, so we should only do what brings us pleasure.
Although the content of this advice is quite tempting and, undoubtedly, somewhat justified, in reality, following it often does not lead to the desired result. In fact, in most cases it simply ruins our lives. Living here and now, people often get divorced, get into debt, and lose control over their health and over themselves in general.
Instead of living in the present moment, it is better to live for the future and “take care” of your past. Do it in a way that you want to remember. Time really does fly by very quickly. The present cannot be grasped, it can hardly be felt. By the time you become aware of it, it will already be the past.
If you don't want to regret your actions, this article is probably for you. There is no point in analyzing what happened a long time ago. But the immediate past is directly related to your choice in the present.
How were the last two years of your life? What about the last two months? What about the last two days? Think about it.
Today is tomorrow's yesterday. How can what you do today help you tomorrow? Will today's decisions motivate you for tomorrow's work? Or are you simply postponing the necessary changes to some abstract day in the future?
Living for the future and taking care of the past means understanding that you are shaping your past now, and it determines the future that you would like to see.
Awareness of sensations
Do you often pay attention to the sensations in your body while walking down the street? What muscles are used while walking, how smoothly and clearly do they work? Do you often concentrate on its taste while eating, without being distracted by the news or your phone feed? This is basic awareness. Try to spend at least ten minutes a day feeling the sensations in your body. While walking home, notice how your feet touch the asphalt and how your leg muscles tense. Feel how your arms move when walking, how the muscles of your abs, back and neck are involved.
At first it will be very difficult, everything around you will be distracting, thoughts and plans will confuse you. Just return your attention to the sensations in your body each time. Try to notice your body's reactions to external factors in everyday life. For example, feel how the muscles of the neck and head tense, how the shoulders rise in moments of anxiety. Or the way your fists clench when you get annoyed or angry.
It is no secret that mental and physiological reactions are closely related. Each emotion also includes bodily manifestations of our body. By learning to notice them, to see the relationship between events and muscle tension, you can reach a new level of awareness, without allowing your body to mindlessly engage in automatic habits.
Ability to hear
Gradually, the body will get used to paying attention to details, and it will be possible to move on to the next stage, namely seeing and hearing. Once you learn to notice your body, begin to connect your hearing. It doesn't matter indoors or outdoors, just try to hear all the sounds around you:
- the ticking of the home clock, the sound of the refrigerator running;
- footsteps of people around, the noise of passing cars;
- snippets of other people's conversations;
- birds singing, rustling leaves on trees, etc.
In normal mode, we become so accustomed to background noise that we don’t pay any attention to it. On the contrary, we are more likely to notice if it suddenly becomes quiet. But here the task is the opposite - try to hear all these sounds, each of them separately. For example, while walking in nature, listen to the sound of the forest and wind.
Ability to Observe
The next step is to develop the ability to observe. The most important thing in this skill is to learn to look at things from the outside, not to evaluate, but simply to see them. Notice other people, signs, architectural features, shops.
There is a theory that the human brain is capable of consciously performing only three operations at a time. Accordingly, if you feel your body, hear and observe the reality around you, then there will be no room left for disturbing thoughts in your head. This is a natural way to accustom the body to awareness and enjoyment of what is happening at a given moment in time. And opportunities for this pleasure can be seen and heard in almost any situation.
Mindfulness of Breathing
Another way to practice mindfulness is to focus on your breathing. At any moment you can feel exactly how you breathe. It is enough to pay attention to the principle of breathing, to how you inhale the air. Feel how cool and clean it is upon entering, how it fills your lungs. Using full or diaphragmatic breathing, you can notice how much pleasure this process brings.
The principle of “here and now” and its application
Film "Radio Day"
In a difficult life situation, it makes sense to focus your attention only on what can be solved here and now.
Film "Peaceful Warrior"
When you are on the rings, make movements for the sake of movements, just be here and now.
Film "The Chairman"
This strong man is a realist, but his soul is in the future that he will build!
Film "The Amazon Code"
People from the Pirahã tribe are happy and completely internally harmonious. Do you want to be like them in everything?
The term “Here and Now” (“here and now”) is very popular. It is used in psychodrama, Gestalt therapy, client-centered psychotherapy, non-directive hypnosis and NLP. It was introduced into psychotherapy by the founder of psychodrama, Ya. L. Moreno, and this is how I formulate the principle of organizing a psychodramatic scene. The group members playing the roles had to act in the scene as if everything was happening “here and now,” although the scene itself could refer to the distant past or future. This is one of the basic principles of training - to talk only about what is happening here and now, and not about what once happened or can happen.
After Jacob Moreno, the principle of “here and now” was raised to the flag by Fritz Perls, making it one of the main principles of Gestaltherapy. By inviting clients to say “Now I am aware” more often and at the same time focusing on the states of the body, Perls thus replaced the intellectual insights of psychoanalysis with a living re-experiencing of a traumatic situation.
Today, the principle of “here and now” is most often understood as a state of consciousness when focusing attention on what is happening in this place and at this second, without being distracted by thoughts about the past and future.
Turning off thinking about the past and future means not being somewhere far away or with someone, but here. Not in the past or future, but now. And to decide accordingly only what is happening or can happen now, without being burdened with the problems of the future - or what is not in our power now.
Similarly, the “Here and Now” principle is a way of organizing attention that switches and focuses attention from the past (or future) to what is happening at this second and in this place. Is it right to live according to the “Here and Now” principle? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. For children, infantile adults and people with problems, the ability to “be here and now” is, as a rule, very useful: the ability to be “here and now” increases personal adequacy, speed and clarity of response, and overall efficiency.
Indeed, children (including adult children) are easily distracted. Bright there, noisy in the other direction - and attention is no longer here. Things stopped or went wrong. And when the person gathered his attention and returned to business, things began to happen again.
When used correctly, the “Here and Now” principle removes infantilism and helps to grow up. A human child loves to dream, replacing difficult reality with sweet dreams. He remains in childhood. And when such a person returned to life, to the here and now, he went about his business, preparing himself for the future, accustoming himself to adult life. If the principle of “here and now” does not prohibit thinking about the future, but is aimed at building the future, collecting available resources to move forward, this is an excellent principle.
The “here and now” principle helps well in solving difficult problems. Indeed, people with negative thinking see problems where there are none; the “here and now” principle brings such people back to reality. Similarly, with neurosis, a person tends to plunge into the past or run away into the future. The reasons for this are different - sometimes going into the past is an escape from the difficult present, sometimes, on the contrary, a person cannot escape from painful memories of the past... But the result is the same - the present is abandoned, which reduces adequacy and creates new problems. Instead of suffering over past failures or dreaming that everything will be great in the future (and at the same time being afraid of the future), it is useful to see the reality around you. Reality is not always shiny and only cool and pleasant, but, as a rule, it is richer, more interesting and more promising than negative glitches.
You can get acquainted with the practice of using this technique by viewing the consultation of F. Perls, as well as in the articles Hurry up to live in the present - Vyacheslav Pankratov or There is only a moment (Anton Perelomov).
Where does the “here and now” principle turn out to be unnecessary and harmful?
When the “here and now” principle distracts from negative thoughts or painful memories, it is a successful psychotherapeutic solution, useful as crutches for the patient. But what is useful for the sick should not be thoughtlessly recommended to the healthy. “Here and now” is an important healing platform for the mentally ill, but those who have recovered leave this treatment platform and never descend to it again. When the principle of “here and now” is uncritically promoted in relation to adults, healthy and developing people, it turns out to be rather harmful stupidity.
Yes, for people with negative thinking, the ability to be “here and now” is extremely important. On the other hand, for everyone to always remain only “here and now” is wrong and stupid. What is useful for neurotics, people with negative thinking, is less necessary for healthy and vigorous people. For a healthy, vigorous and strong person, living today is not enough, for a businessman it is stupid and impossible.
Today I withdrew all my money from my account and am sitting in a luxurious restaurant, drinking my favorite wine. Here and now - complete happiness. And the fact that tomorrow, when I have a headache and have nothing to pay with, I prefer not to think. “Why think about tomorrow? Live here and now!" There is only a moment, hold on to it!.. Right?
A successful person remembers the past well and is focused on the future. The past can give you the necessary experience; a look into the future helps you orient yourself.
Being part of the personality “here and now” is mandatory. Getting involved in the here and now with your entire personality is unacceptable. The best part of one's personality should be kept in values and plans that work for the future. It is natural for a strong, healthy person to be in reality, to see everything that is happening “here and now,” and at the same time to live more in the future. The more developed a person is, the more he lives - in the future!
Total
For children, infantile adults and people with problems, the ability to be “here and now”, turning off thinking about the past and future, is usually very useful. When the “here and now” principle distracts from negative thoughts or painful memories, it is a successful psychotherapeutic solution. If this principle is promoted in relation to adult, healthy and developing people, asking them not to think about either the past or the future, it turns out to be rather harmful stupidity.
Awareness of emotions and thoughts
Many people mistakenly believe that our emotions are caused by events that happen in our lives. It is easy to prove that this is not so, because in this case everyone would react to the same events in the same way. In this article about cognitive behavioral therapy, you can learn more about the principles of thinking and the influence that beliefs and thoughts have on our reactions. Here it will suffice to say only that the disturbing thoughts that often flash through our brain automatically are the very thing that ultimately causes negative emotions.
Accordingly, it is extremely important to be able to recognize the causes and consequences of our condition, to notice thoughts that frighten and worry us, making us feel sad, melancholy or angry. Observe your thoughts and the emotions they lead to. Try to do this without evaluation or criticism, simply looking at them from the outside if possible. This skill will help you get rid of the misconception that events directly cause negative emotions and affect bodily and behavioral reactions. By practicing this, you will learn to work with your subconscious and be able to live in harmony with yourself.
We also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the interesting techniques for improving awareness described in the video below.
Technique “here and now”: let’s summarize
These guidelines are basic and allow you to get started with mindfulness techniques without much difficulty. But don’t rush – as with many useful practices, the key to success is regularity. The “here and now” technique requires gradual introduction into your life. Try to feel and experience everything you do. Pay attention to the taste of food, the smells on the street and the music in your headphones. With daily practice, you can come to a constant presence in the moment “here and now.” And this will allow you to enjoy every day you live, without getting hung up on anxieties, fears and experiences that are always in the past or future, but never in the present.
The “here and now” technique, as well as other effective techniques, are described in detail in Andrei Kurpatov’s book “Happy of my own free will. 12 steps to mental health." They will help you return your emotional state to normal and begin to enjoy every day you live.
