Achieving present-moment awareness

The starting point of becoming antifragile is the ability to stop thinking about the past, worrying about the future, or imagining things that (might or might not) be happening on the other side of the world.

The starting point of becoming antifragile is the ability to focus on what is actually happening, here and now, in this present moment.

The more we do this, the better we become able to carry out all the other steps of Inner Leadership: the better we can remain calmly centred and grounded, connected with who we are at our best and what matters most to us. The better we can make clear sense of the situation, find more options to move forward, choose the best way forward, and implement it — enthusiastically and undistracted.

Present-moment awareness provides the foundation upon which everything else builds

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How To Come to Present-Moment Awareness:

If you want to come to present-moment awareness, pause for a moment. Sit or stand still. Breathe in and hold your breath for a count of three. Then let it out slowly and count to three again.

Now, bring your attention to what is happening around you. What are you seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, or smelling in this present moment? Describe this as if you were describing it to another person.

Then shift your attention to what is happening in your body. Take another deep breath and let it out slowly. Scan through your body, from your toes to your shoulders, your fingertips to the top of your head. What are you feeling in the different parts of your body? Describe those feelings as if you were telling another person. Are you experiencing any recurrent thoughts? What are they? Describe them as if to another person. Take another deep breath, pause, and slowly release that breath.

Now bring your attention back to your surroundings. What is happening around you in this present moment? What can you see, hear, feel, taste, or smell? Describe it to yourself as if you were describing it to another person.

Repeat this cycle as many times as you find useful.

The more you practice this process, the more you will become aware of the reality that is actually happening in this present moment, around you and inside you. And the more you practice, the easier this process will become.

And as this happens, you are likely to notice three things:

  • The more we become detached observers of our own thoughts and feelings (by describing them as if to someone else) the less likely we are to get caught up in them. We realise that whatever we might be thinking or feeling now is different from what we were thinking or feeling two hours ago or two days ago, and it is different from what we will be thinking or feeling in two days time. Our thoughts and feelings are just experiences we have for a short time. They are not reality.
  • The more we notice details of the reality that is actually happening in us and around us, the less we get caught up in the imagined fantasies of our minds. Yes the past happened and yes some sort of future is going to happen. But it is not happening now. Being here now, reconnects us to reality as it truly is, rather than our imagined fantasy. And the more we can connect with what is truly happening, here and now, the more we can begin to let go of the past and then build the future we most long to create.
  • And third, the more we come to present-moment awareness, the more we realise that our inner churning is caused not so much by the events that are happening around us but by the ways we think about and interpret those events. And the more we realise this, the more we can let that inner churning go. Which in turn enables us to make clearer sense of the situation, find more opportunities to move forward, choose the best, and inspire ourselves and others to make that future happen.

The better we can come to present-moment awareness, the more antifragile we become. Because as any tightrope walker knows, it is only when we are fully focused on what is actually happening right here and now, undistracted by the past or future, that we can truly do what needs to be done, here and now, to create the results we most want.

How much of your time do you currently spend thinking about the past, worrying about the future, or imagining things that might or might not be happening far away? Would it be useful to be able to shift your focus back to what is actually happening, right here, right now, in this present moment, and what you might then be able to do about what matters most to you?


Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and tools for building inspiration in times of change.

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Photo By Noel Reynolds via StockPholio.net

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