Mindfulness Skill 1: Present Moment Awareness

TRANSCRIPT

Interviewer:

 Now we've been talking, we've been theorizing what we'll talk about now because we've gone through a block of other topics that we had sort of set out to achieve. And that was a block of 10 topics that have all now been discussed. So we're looking now at discussing mindfulness and particularly mindfulness techniques. However, mindfulness is something that's come up in the past, but could you just clarify, what is mindfulness? And why is it useful?

Patrick: 

For sure, mindfulness is typically characterized as neutral, non-judgmental awareness of the present moment. So it's sort of really to watch versus react to your thoughts, feelings, and sensations. So that's sort of essentially what it is, it's become super popular now, as one of the optional treatments for both physical and psychological topics, stress, anxiety, and depression. Also, some, what they call Mindfulness-Based pain management for, people that are managing physical pain.

Essentially, it's a contrast to our normal mental style, which tends to sort of react to things, perhaps even to our thoughts. Instead, it's about really just trying to be fully present in each moment, so that the mind can respond newly or you could almost say uniquely, for each moment, so it's sort of fresh. Perhaps the goal or maybe t, the effect of it is that it gives you a chance to fully freely disengage, you could say, from the habitual thought patterns that we might have in there might be so negative ones.

And the benefit of that, of course, is that we can maintain our well-being during a crisis or a difficult time, if our thoughts are going crazy town, we can just observe neutrally more in a more non-judgmental way versus getting caught up in them. And finally, I suppose mindfulness is also seen, as you know, it has a different relationship to thoughts, it doesn't see them as factual, because, you know, ultimately, we created all of them, but it describes them sometimes as passing mental events. And because we can see that we've constructed them, we therefore have that choice about whether we believe in them or engage with them.

So it's really about almost having a free or free choice about the contents of our head and going well, perhaps that animals have to, to play with that or engage with that. So it creates a lot of freedom within the mental spaces that we can sometimes get in.

What we were planning on looking at over the next few weeks were several different facets of mindfulness in the form of techniques. So as for the first one, which is going to be the focus of today's discussion, what is present moment awareness, and why is it important?

Yeah, okay. So present moment, awareness is pretty foundational to mindfulness. And you could say, perhaps a, perhaps even a definition is like a present time, moment by moment, awareness of all that's going on, versus sort of being caught up in it. And all that's going on might be what we're seeing in front of us, what's happening, you could say externally, or could also be what's going on, is what's going on internally within us. So it's the ability just to be able to be present in the moment. Rather than in another world, sometimes I describe it as being, you know, where your mind is and where your body is because sometimes they're in two different places. So your body might be here, but mine might be, in the lounge at home or something. So it's the ability to be, you could almost say in the present versus in the past reflecting about something, or in the future, trying to plan something, or in some sort of thought about something, it's just sort of turning up.

Now, and I think John Lennon described it years ago, he said, you know, life is what happens, while you're busy making other plans, you know, like, you're somewhere else, but life is, you know, that the, you know, the image of the sand. The Sands of Time, you know, just slowly, you might be doing something else, but you know, like in a game, but the sand granules are continuing to drop them at the moment is always happening now. And it's about being able to be attentive to that. And when we are, the richness of this experience can be fully felt, you know, a whole lot more.

The thing that strikes me, even just the term and how you've described it is it it would seem that a lot of people, myself included, would assume themselves to be aware of the present moment, and it's that being something that's, you know, hard to get away from, like how can we not be in the form of present moment awareness? So, how would we, therefore, characterize a lack of present-moment awareness and why is it negative?

Yeah, I think that simple litmus test is, in my mind where my body is is a good, you know, check. And then if it's not a little bit really quiet in the present moment, I mean, some will have invented that I mean, and you know, another thing perhaps is, say, let's say you're at a concert, and you want to pay $200, for your mind was somewhere else for, say 75% of it, then, you know, you've got 25 bucks worth of concept as the real deal. So that's sort of why it can be negative in a sense, if we're not always there, the positive bit, you could say is, if we're an important moment, perhaps even like a loving moment, or something, it's important to our career or something, and we're fully present in it, it can enrich that experience.

And we can be a lot more, you know, open to whatever side of the connection with that person or the experience that we're, that we're going through. So that's the positive but I suppose we also negative is we're not? Well, let's just say, well, if we're not, we're not always attentive to say two possible threats and things that might be going on, that might be a problem. And as soon as being in the present gives us access to being able to pick up what's going on and information that's necessary for us to act adaptively or appropriately,

Interviewer:

Patrick, what are some specific aspects of our lifestyle and health that are impacted by how attentive we are to the present moment?

Patrick:

I think the main thing I guess, is that when we are present, we are open to a much richer quality of life experience, is sometimes I would call that, you know, information processing style or our way of thinking can have what they call attentional biases, you know, we can have a very narrow field sometimes that we're looking at or focusing on. And when we're present, it sort of dilates and becomes much, much broader taking in much more of the context of of life. So I think the ability to be present really can affect our lifestyle in a way that it's much, much richer, and it's a, it's almost a like a more active approach. Because it gets us to focus our attention on everything in the sense that's going on that's pertinent. Rather than sometimes, perhaps, like, you'll have a conversation with someone, and you can hear halfway through or whatever, that their mind is queuing up, they're sort of waiting for you to finish for them to get their bit out.

And you could almost say that second half, you might as well just stop talking, right? Because they're not present. They're ready for them. And you might have been really, yourself queuing up a really good point you thought. And I think when we're present, we get the whole point we get we get the richness of the experience. I think that's, that's it sort of main impact was, you know, we get really to turn up in life in all it's happening rather than just sort of filtered bit. Yeah.

Interviewer:

And so with all of this discussion around the present moment, awareness, how do you feel we can strengthen it? Or in essence, what is your technique for us to achieve it?

Patrick:

Yeah, well, there is a simple and easy take-home one, and able to practice anyway. And I put it into five little sections, which you can do super quickly. So the first one, what they call the VA ks is the visual auditory kinesthetics. Or what I can see what I can hear what I can send to my body, then you could almost say the physical ones. And then there are the two after that, which are the more subtle ones, which are the thoughts and emotions. So all you do is just take those five, the first three physical ones visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and you just bring your attention to each one I'm so for the visual one. So for example, right now, if we bring our attention to everything that we can see, literally just in this moment, and then you can do that for half a minute.

And the goal is to watch it neutrally judgmentally not like I hear that that thing's broken. I need to fix that and you stay away from all those judgments. It's just turning up and experiencing everything you can see visually. And once you take that one you can do the same we won't do it with it, but you know, the auditory, listen out all the possible noises, everything that you can hear, and it's like a training it's like an exercise set at the gym. Where we're doing to now we're on to you could almost say that with the hearing exercise machine, you just listen to everything you can hear without judging it without going oh, what's that and labeling it as just listening. So visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, same one, bringing attention to the feeling of the body and you can go head to toe goal is not this one to relax it. It's just to simply notice what the body's saying. So visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

And then the last two simple, same one, some thoughts and feelings, just thoughts, just watching thoughts, coming and going, not doing anything with them engaging with them, turning up in the moment. And then emotions, what's the feeling that's present right here? And just being aware of it. The goal with all of those five visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and thoughts and feelings, is just to be able to turn up with what's already going on. And all I'm doing is just bringing my attention to it and turning up in my life, whilst it's whilst it's happening.

Interviewer:

And with those techniques that you know, it, you feel that you know, there's a degree to which you've got to be somewhat cognitive, and you assess these things, but I suppose that the message is to not to be ultimately judgmental of them, when they when you identify them true if we are sort of confronted with an aspect of our mindset or circumstance when we're doing this exercise that is challenging or negative, you know, say that we have an overbearing emotion that's making it very hard to concentrate on it. What advice do you have for overcoming any of these negative feelings that might make the exercise difficult?

Patrick:

Yeah, no, it's a good point. Because sometimes, they can be what they call contrary indications and people do mindfulness, you know, they turn up in the present. But if they've been spending their time avoiding stuff, you know, that fridge magnet, I'll ask him so much happier since I've been in denial. Mindfulness is clear. We're not in denial, we're just being present with what is there. So it's a great question. The answer essentially, is that the foundational principle of mindfulness is neutral, non-judgmental awareness, or just to not judge it, to not engage with it, but just to watch it. So the present moment awareness, it's very inclusive, including the negative reactions that we might have, to what we're seeing. So it's like, okay, so I might react there.

And so I include that as part of the present moment, but I am not engaging with it's critical, not engaged with it, but just watch it neutrally, non-judgmentally. I think, when we do that, it means that sometimes we call this work, you know, you're doing this, the hero's journey, you know, like you're, it's quite a heroic place to be able to go, you know, I'm just going to be with whatever's there. I'm not going to run from it. But I'm certainly not going to engage with it, I'm just going to be with it in an open nonjudging space.

And that's a powerful way to be in life because it enables you to be able to be in many situations and be in the present with them, versus having to move away from them. Because there are too many judgments or real critical paths.

Interviewer:

Yeah. And so our focus for the next few weeks, as we say, is going to be mindfulness. And this is just one technique, that being present moment awareness. We've got, each of our subsequent discussion is going to be looking at a different technique. But with that in mind, Patrick, I just want to say thanks for getting in touch with us again this week. And hope to speak to you again next week.

Patrick:

Yep, that sounds good. We've got a whole list of them all which slowly build on each other to create a hugely mindful human being.

Interviewer:

Excellent. Thanks very much, Patrick.

Patrick:

All right. Take care you too.