The Seven Benefits of Being Present

People, in general, have a hard time living in the present. In my opinion, It’s the number one obstacle that keeps people from living a full life. We are a society that lives anywhere but. We are either dwelling on what already happened or worried about what might happen in the future. Usually, when creating our future, we create it from a place within our past. And the cycle continues. According to psychologists Mathew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert, 50 percent of our time is spent thinking about something other than what we are doing, and 80 percent of that is spent thinking about something more stressful than what’s happening.

Research has shown that we are more calm, more positive, and more focused when fully present. Even when we are performing a task that might be unpleasant, we will be more relaxed and more positive if we remain present with the task at hand. The following are seven benefits of practicing presence, as inspired by mindfulness-based cognitive therapists pioneers John Teasdale, Mark Williams, and Zindel Segal.

Experience Less Autopilot

Living life on autopilot is going through the motions based on one’s habits that have been created. We can drive, eat, walk, and get the kids ready for school while completing a myriad of other tasks. We can even talk without being fully aware of what we’re doing or talking about. When we think about it, there are several things that one can be doing and not be fully aware of. In these instances, our bodies are doing one thing, and our minds are entirely elsewhere. We call this multitasking and will even consider this trait desirable. How many things can we do at once? The question is, how many things are you missing out on because you’re doing so many things at once?

Less Preoccupation with Thinking

Are you an overthinker? We can easily get lost in our thoughts and analyze everything. We even explore the thought and have thoughts about those thoughts. This can go on endlessly. The thoughts we create around situations or circumstances are what cause more of the emotions surrounding said circumstance, as opposed to the circumstance itself. Our interpretation of it gets our emotions and overthinking fired up. Presence can be very useful in helping us to refocus our attention so that we can become aware of this cycle. Sometimes, we can be so caught up in the process of overthinking that we lose sight of our actual interpretation of the situation. There are so many thoughts and emotions fogging up the view.

More Living in the Present Rather Than the Past and Future

I am curious, are you here right now? OR are you thinking about something else? We can time travel in our heads. Our minds tend to wander. Yes, we have memories, but we, as humans, can mentally time travel. It’s impressive, actually.

When we travel to the past or the future, we can quite literally feel the emotions that come with it. Our body responds to this, so if you travel to an unpleasant experience and it stirs up the emotions that go with it, you will likely have physical symptoms that may surface with that emotion. Likewise, catastrophizing and worrying about what might happen in the future. This can potentially be bad for our health and well-being. The more we stay in the negative emotions, the more our brain will continue to do so, as we have built the neuropathways. The good news is that we can change our neuropathways. The key is consistency. Practicing presence is the only way to experience living.

More Acceptance and Less Aversion

Aversion is when we escape and avoid our feelings, emotions, etc. We do this because it’s uncomfortable to face them. The thing is, the more we avoid, the stronger the emotion becomes. What our mind tries to forget, the body will remember. We hold onto these emotions as the physical symptoms they marry. The more you resist, the more they will persist. So, what can we do instead? The key is to face the emotion and allow them. I have respectively heard this called “name it to tame it”. The idea is to feel the emotion through. Put a name to it, and release it. It may not fully disappear, but the intensity will lessen.

Acceptance = Less Judgment

When we can accept things as they already are and not dwell on how they should be, that’s when real change can occur. By practicing acceptance of a situation or event, we can see with more clarity while letting go of judgment with either ourselves or others. When we judge, we distort what IS. When we accept without judgment, we can become aware of our truth. To get in tune with the emotions surrounding the circumstance without judgment and to accept things as they are. When you can accomplish that, growth and change will follow. Please know that I am not referring to just accepting an unsafe or unjust situation, i.e, abuse, etc. But accepting what is not in your control will allow more clarity and perhaps open channels for change.

Experience Thoughts as Fleeting and Less Fixed

We can very quickly overidentify with our thoughts, and listening to the constant chatter can really make us suffer sometimes. What is important to note is that you are not your thoughts; you are just the observer of them. Some of these thoughts are not necessarily true, but we will believe anything the voice tells us. An example of this is when we talk about how we feel. We might say, “I am Angry, or “I am an angry person”. This in of itself is overidentifying with our thoughts. We don’t do this with the feelings in our bodies, such as “I am a sore back” We say “I have a sore back”. Likewise, your language about your thoughts can and should work the same way. “I feel angry” as opposed to “I am angry.”

When you can observe the thoughts that come in, you will realize that they are not you. We can create these thoughts without becoming them. This requires some work, yes and begins with not overthinking and practicing presence and mindfulness.

Awareness of Broader Needs = Less Tunnel Vision

Tunnel vision is something that most of us are guilty of, especially those who wear many hats. We become hyper-focused on our responsibilities or a goal. We will throw our whole selves into it. Whether it be raising a family, starting a business, building a successful career, etc. We will often exhaust ourselves doing “all of the things” and ignore other areas of our lives. We will give up things that would likely nourish us, just so we can reach a goal or maybe risk looking selfish. We should have goals, but not at the expense of our own emotional and physical well-being. Being aware of how our pursuit of reaching goals is affecting us is key, along with the awareness of what broader needs are taking a back seat. It is important to include the people and things important to us.

To summarize, when we aren’t present, we may ruminate and regret the past or catastrophizing about the future. This ultimately produces more stress and can even make us angry, anxious, or sad. We become completely distracted from life because life is happening right now. The only time we are guaranteed this moment is right here, right now! We are the authors of our own life; make the story beautiful!

You can also read “The Difference Between Mindset and Mindfulness.”