How to Practise Being Present

If you have read my previous post ‘Living in the moment improved my life‘, You would have read my experience after putting Eckhart Tolles ‘The Power of Now’ theory in to play. I am now sharing my top tips for staying in the present.

Benefits of staying in the present

When you accept that the people around you all have their own problems, just like you have yours, it brings a sense of understanding to the phrase “I am a spiritual body experiencing a human experience.” We all have our own trials and tribulations. Knowing that why not just observe, stay still and just watch the world around you. It sounds so simple, but when tested, you will be surprised by how much your mind is distracted.

I had 6 wonderful months of surrendering myself to each moment. People commented on me being the happiest they had seen me, which was bizzare because some challenging things did come up. I went through the motions, by asking myself questions like, what am I learning from this? What is still good around you? Have you overcome worse? I handled things more gracefully.

When I was distracted by social media, I observed what i was doing, which a lot of the time, made me put the phone down.

2020 happened and now things have changed. it has changed the way I see my future, the life I am currently living and the things I want to change. My mind is for the moment back in thought, but there is more control. I want to make changes, It has to be now, in the present, making my thoughts mostly productive. I guess in a way you could say I am still very present.

I recommend anyone and everyone to try this out. When you get it right the first moments of pure realisation of what you have missed can feel exhilarating.

Here are my Top Tips for Staying Present!

Breathe

Breathing and listening to your breathing is the most advised method to ground yourself and bring you back into the moment.

Feel you breath fill up your lungs and travel back out again. Bring yourself to your inner mechanism and feel it operating.

Try techniques like Square breathing – (The number of seconds you can do this for may change but the technique stays the same. If you have decided to do it for 8 seconds, Square breathing requires you to breath in for 8 seconds, hold it for 8 seconds, breathe out for 8 seconds hold it for 8 seconds and then repeat.)

Open your eyes and Look

Look around. What do you see? What is different? Look and observe what is going on? Can you see movement? Or is everything Still?

Rather then coasting through life in auto pilot. When your on your way to work ask yourself, What is nature doing? What are people doing? When you are at work watch how people interact.

If you are at home. What does it feel like to just be still. What does your home look like. Look around at it. (Usually When I do this I start tidying up) Stay present watch how you tidy observe what you are doing. Rather then doing it in the rushed, get out of the way haste.

Any time you are outdoors just appreciate the world for what it is. 

Feel

Feel the clothes you are wearing, feel the chair you are sitting on and it holding your weight securely. Pay attention to the movement of your body. What your body is doing, how does it feels. Do You feel any aches? What temperature do you feel? Is your body tense or is it relaxed?

Take if inside how do you feel inside are you happy, sad, content, stressed. Just notice don’t judge.

Listen

What can you hear outdoors? Can you hear the weather, or distant noises. Listen intently to the work colleague you usually ignore. Practise becoming a better listener to those around you.

Also listen to your own thoughts. We naturally drift into thought, it is somewhat hard to escape it, but just listen and observing without judgment this can become instantly calming. Rather then getting lost in your thoughts, you will acknowledge the moment that you are randomly thinking. What then tends to happen, is that you will likely stop thinking, because you have taken yourself above your thoughts. This is how we start to take control of “the uncontrollable mind” 

Listen to music. Listening to music has time and time again been proven to affect your mood. Put on your feel-good playlist. Pay attention to how the music makes you feel. Does it make you sing? Dance and feel the emotions?  

Smell

You may be surprised at how many smells we don’t smell! If they are not potent we tend to miss them, but I guess it’s the same as seeing a beautiful rare bird but overlooking it due to being in our thoughts. Try smelling more. Make it your duty to stop and wonder what smells are around. It will surprise you to see how much you missed. 

Taste

Savour the food you eat really taste it. Enjoy it and the moment of eating it. When I done this one it surprisingly put me off a lot of junk food as they didn’t taste as good as it had once seamed. I could taste the chemicals in fizzy drinks and taste the lack of or off putting flavours in a lot of other things.

Be easy on yourself 

When we practise things to create a better life. From quitting smoking to living in the moment we may slip up, we go back to old habits. We then tend to be hard on ourselves or give up. Subconsciously telling ourselves that we can’t achieve it. You are human! Things don’t happen overnight, but you have the choice to try again. Tell yourself it is ok to slip up and continue with the plan. This will help to ease the pressure we apply on ourselves to get things done in a strict way.

Just Be Present

Wherever you are and whatever you are doing be there totally. If you are in an uncomfortable present time, take action to change it. There is nothing wrong with striving for a better life. But don’t ignore all the beauty in the details around you. Becoming more grateful will open yourself up to receive.

Train your mind to stay in the moment, try not overthink the future or dwell in the past, it is easy to go back to old patterns of thinking. When this happens just observe your thoughts without judgment!

Be content, Be present and Be You!