Being in The Moment

On October 22, 2005, I wrote of the One-Minute Workout, http://thinkingdifferently.blogspot.com/2005/10/one-minute-workout.html, which consisted of bending the legs while lifting the knees to the chest immediately on waking up in the morning and still lying down, and holding that position with one's arms and hands -- as in a bearhug for a minute. That was described as the single most essential movement/posture to adopt if one did nothing else. It's actually an easier exercise when one adds the movement of the head -- to the left and right, as a counting device -- each turn to the left and right marking the passing of seconds.

Otherwise, without any movement, it is more difficult to gauge the passage of time -- but a 50 count marking a definitive movement obviously is not a subjective and imaginary achievement. The mind can play tricks of delusions if there are no definitive milestones by which one can assess verifiable realties. And that is why mental exercises should also have a physical component to gauge the effectiveness of that exercise.

One of the most unfortunate dichotomies of contemporary life is this fragmenting and compartmentalizing of experience so that mental exercise is thought to have nothing to do with a physical activity, and physical exercise is often derided and even prescribed as a mindless activity -- so one can get on an exercise bike or treadmill, and work the body to exhaustion while one’s mind is entertaining exotic destinations and activities other than the drudgery of the treadmill/stationary bike.

Any really beneficial experience however, is when one is fully there, in what one is doing, with total focus and engagement. That is the growth stimulus -- and nothing else is. To be distracted and diverted in a thousand different directions doesn’t allow for that concentration of energy that enables one to break through to a higher level of effectiveness and actualization. And that is probably why growth is most noticeable in the young -- because they are less distracted and preoccupied with the many ways it is possible to do so.

Frequently when one gets to know another for any depth of purpose, he will note how much the other stays only with the reality of the moment and circumstances -- or whether their focus is a year in the future or a lifetime in the past. It is very difficult to convince a person who thinks a past life is more important than the present life and moment, that that present reality and moment is the only thing that really matters and makes a difference. They may even have an ideology that supports and sustains them -- “History always repeats itself,” or, “These newspapers will appreciate in value the longer I hang on to them.”

In the past, a large part of the function of the human mind went into the cultivation of memory and storage -- which are performed immeasurably better by computers. In fact, that is what computers do much better than the human mind -- access and retrieve the total and collective memory, and storage of human experience. That frees the individual human mind to stay fresh in the possibilities of the newly created moments of which memory is a hindrance.

This is a critical factor in the failure of the human mind to function efficiently and effectively only in the present moment -- in which it is vitally necessary to do so. Just to luxuriate in one’s past memories of a life lived long ago and that accumulation of knowledge and memories, detracts and is a diversion of living presently -- which creates the failure of the mind that measures its competency as memory. The new mind is born fresh of its past knowledge each day -- and is learning from moment to moment. That is what is important and not brain function as memory -- the standard of brain function in the past. That is the great transition as well as transformation of consciousness in these times. That is also the paradigm of modern information processing.

One only needs to learn something once and then move on. He does not need to spend the rest of everyday, reinforcing past lessons learned. The past can be stored and forgotten -- to be retrieved when and if it needs to be. But usually, some greater moment in the present, makes reliving a past one, less necessary, enjoyable and fulfilling.