Many spiritual and religious traditions talk
about the human tendency to spend too much time outside the present moment. According to a Harvard University study, we
spend almost fifty percent of the time we are awake, not thinking about what we are
doing. So, what are we thinking about instead? Well, we either ruminate about things that
happened in the past or we worry about things that yet have to come. The latter often goes hand in hand with fantasies
about negative outcomes. This is not only time consuming; it also evokes
emotions that might cause unnecessary pain. I think it’s clear why the Buddhists and
Stoics tell us to live in the present moment. Now, the big question is: how? In this video, I will present you 8 ways to
enter the present moment. First of all: thank you Marilyn & Dylan for
your PayPal donation and thank you Rex for supporting me on Patreon. Very much appreciated! Now, let´s dive in. If you find yourself lost in mental chatter,
there are ways to get out of this. These are often simple tricks that, however,
take discipline to pull off. I'll start with the first one: (1) Breath meditation An easy way to find relief from overthinking
is watching the breath and how the body and mind reacts to it. The Buddhists call this Ānāpānasati, which
means mindfulness of breathing. This is not the same as breathing exercises,
in which one purposefully controls the rhythm of the breath. Based on the Buddhist tradition, we can do
breath meditation in several stages. The first stage is the contemplation of the
body, thus, watching the breath and sensations of different body parts. The second stage is the contemplation of feelings,
like anger, and how they linger in the mind. The third stage is focusing on thoughts and
how they come and go. (2) Feeling the inner body Most of our bodily processes go completely
autopilot. An effective escape from the immersion in
all kinds of thinking patterns is focusing on what's going on inside. You can look at the tightness of the muscles,
for example, or focus on the digestive system. When you do this you will find out that the
inner body is a very lively place. Keeping your focus on the liveliness keeps
you in the now and makes you calmer. This is basically a part of Buddhist breathing
meditation, but it can be used as a standalone practice as well to trick the mind into the
present moment immediately. Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle teaches this practice in his book The Power Of Now (link below). (3) Touching Touch is another way to get rid of the maelstrom
of thought. There are different ways to do this. One of them goes simply by sitting on a chair
and observe how the buttocks touch the seat. Another method is holding a small object in
your hand like a marble or, perhaps, a piece of food and focus on how this feels to your
fingers. Or how about focusing on the simple act of
washing your hands and brushing your teeth? We mostly aren't very mindful of these daily
activities because the mind is somewhere else. But they are great opportunities to become
present. (4) Reciting mantras A mantra is a sound, that could be sacred
in nature and could also consist of a word or several words. The most basic mantra is ohmm… which they
call the source of all mantras in Hinduism. But there are countless other examples of
mantras. In Buddhism it is the recitation of the name
of the Buddha. Once I spent a few days in a Hare Krishna
monastery, and the monks there recited the same sentence over and over again. In Islam they also have a mantra which goes
like this: La ilaha illallah
La ilaha illallah Which means: there is no God but Allah. Mantras don't have to be religious, though. And there is no consensus whether a mantra
should have meaning or not. But the repetitive nature of engaging in mantras
- also called mantra meditation - gives the mind something to focus on that happens in
the present moment. This quiets the mind. (5) Waiting for the next thought The first time I heard of this trick was by
Eckhart Tolle, again from his book The Power Of Now. This practice is terribly simple, yet surprisingly
effective. The only thing you have to do is to become
conscious of your thoughts. Then, ask yourself: what will my next thought
be? If you really focus on the anticipation of
the next thought, something special will happen. Try it yourself and you will see what I mean. (6) Awareness of silence If you listen very closely you'll discover
that the world is never truly silent. There might be sounds of traffic in the distance,
sounds of birds or maybe the wind. Even if you spend time in an anechoic chamber
you will not experience complete silence as long as you're breathing and your body is
alive which, obviously, produces sound. What will happen however is that you become
aware of the more sophisticated sounds of the environment. The mind becomes very curious of what's happening
in the distance, and will focus all its attention on discovering silence in subtlety. (7) Listening closely to words This practice works for social anxiety as
well. In fact, dr. Jordan Peterson proposes this
practice to overcome the fear of talking to people. By listening closely to what people have to
say, you basically shift your attention from your thoughts to the person speaking. Having dealt with social anxiety myself, I
can say the following. When I'm socially anxious or shy, I´m entangled
in thoughts like: What do I have to say now. What can I say to impress this person or... ..why the hell did I have to say this. The nature of these questions is that they
relate to the past and the future. Thus, when someone is speaking to me I rather
focus on what I said earlier or what I am going to say, instead of truly listening. The secret is: when I fully focus on what
the person is saying, my own words often come naturally and without hesitation. (8) Focusing on movement Everyday we make a series of movements that
are basically on auto-pilot. This could be cleaning, doing the dishes,
walking from home to the bus station, sitting down, standing up, going to the bathroom or
shaking hands with people. Because such movements are of frequent occurrence,
we often don't pay any attention to them. Instead, we think, plot, ruminate, worry,
et cetera. Now, instead of spending time in our minds,
we can also focus on these ordinary movements. This seems kind of pointless, but it surely
takes our focus away from excessive thinking and directs it to what's happening right now. So, that's it! I hope these methods help you to become more present. They sure help me, and believe me, I've always
been a chronic overthinker. Thank you for watching.
