{"id":2445,"date":"2022-04-27T14:49:18","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T19:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.med.virginia.edu\/mindfulness\/?p=2445"},"modified":"2022-04-28T13:02:26","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T18:02:26","slug":"resting-in-the-present-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.med.virginia.edu\/mindfulness\/2022\/04\/27\/resting-in-the-present-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"Resting in the Present Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Schorling<\/strong><\/p>\n

A definition of mindfulness that we use in the Mindfulness Center is \u201cintentional nonjudgmental present-moment awareness with kindness\u201d. \u00a0\u00a0Why is there such an emphasis on paying attention to the present moment?\u00a0 Because every moment we experience is<\/em> a present moment.\u00a0 Our lives unfold in the present moment.\u00a0 When the past occurred, it was in the present moment.\u00a0 When we think about the past, we are doing it in the present moment.\u00a0 The same is true of the future.\u00a0 Viewed from this perspective, all our experiences are in the present moment.<\/p>\n

It is easy to get caught up in wishing we could change something that occurred in the past.\u00a0 Obviously this is not possible, yet we can expend a lot of energy wishing we could.\u00a0 We may find we have judgmental thoughts about ourselves for something we did or didn\u2019t do, or about someone else for their action or inaction.<\/p>\n

Even though thinking about the past or the future occurs in the present moment, getting caught up in thoughts takes our attention away from what is happening right now.\u00a0 That is why we need to be intentional about paying attention to the present moment.\u00a0 There is a difference between being lost in\u00a0 \u00a0thought and not realizing this is occurring, what Tara Brach calls \u201cthe trance of thinking\u201d, and being aware of thoughts arising and observing them.<\/p>\n

The mind is a thought generator, and thoughts occur without any conscious effort on our part.\u00a0 Often\u00a0 these thoughts capture our attention and we find ourselves in the trance of thinking.\u00a0 When we realize this is happening, we can observe and acknowledge the thoughts as transient events, letting them go, choosing not to feed them, returning the attention to our present moment experience.<\/p>\n

The present moment is actually all that we can be sure we have.\u00a0 There is no assurance that we will experience another moment.\u00a0 We often live our lives as if we have an endless number of moments, when of course we do not.\u00a0 Each moment is precious, and may be considered timeless because it is always present.<\/p>\n

Jon Kabat-Zinn has observed that, in this moment, \u201cAs long as you are breathing there is more right with you than wrong with you, no matter how ill or hopeless you may feel.\u201d \u00a0We often repeat this quote in our classes as a reminder of the importance of perspective, and appreciating all of our present moment experience.<\/p>\n

A friend and colleague of mine had a serious accident resulting in a number of broken bones requiring surgery who noted that their recovery was made easier by paying attention to the parts of the body that weren\u2019t injured or in pain, not just those that were.\u00a0 Doing this isn\u2019t easy, and bringing kindness to the experience of being present, even with pain, can also help allow us to rest in the present moment as it is, without wishing things were different than they are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A definition of mindfulness that we use in the Mindfulness Center is \u201cintentional nonjudgmental present-moment awareness with kindness\u201d. \u00a0\u00a0Why is there such an emphasis on paying attention to the present moment?\u00a0 Because every moment we experience is a present moment.\u00a0 Our lives unfold in the present moment.\u00a0 When the past occurred, it was in the present moment.\u00a0 When we think about the past, we are doing it in the present moment.\u00a0 The same is true of the future.\u00a0 Viewed from this perspective, all our experiences are in the present moment.<\/p>\n

It is easy to get caught up in wishing we could change something that occurred in the past.\u00a0 Obviously this is not possible, yet we can expend a lot of energy wishing we could.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1202,"featured_media":2360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monthly-musings"],"acf":false,"yoast_head":"\nResting in the Present Moment - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.med.virginia.edu\/mindfulness\/2022\/04\/27\/resting-in-the-present-moment\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Resting in the Present Moment - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A definition of mindfulness that we use in the Mindfulness Center is \u201cintentional nonjudgmental present-moment awareness with kindness\u201d. \u00a0\u00a0Why is there such an emphasis on paying attention to the present moment?\u00a0 Because every moment we experience is a present moment.\u00a0 Our lives unfold in the present moment.\u00a0 When the past occurred, it was in the present moment.\u00a0 When we think about the past, we are doing it in the present moment.\u00a0 The same is true of the future.\u00a0 Viewed from this perspective, all our experiences are in the present moment. 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