Being Present

Jeremy Hunter says “The choices you make about how – and what – you invest attention in forms our life’s structures and content.”

Iain McGilchrist, a famous British psychiatrist and author of The Master and His Emissary, a discussion of right and left brain functioning, says, “Reality changes with the nature of attention we pay to it.”

Attention is the central training and basis for all types of meditation. Mindfulness training in particular focuses on attention and concentration, especially in the beginning.

Jeremy Hunter also says, “What you attend to is what your life becomes.”

We know this is true. For instance, the more attention we pay to engaging in exercise, the more fit we become. The more we attend to our diets and treat food as medicine, the healthier we become. When we take piano lessons and attend to practice, we become more proficient. Only if we attend to taking and posting videos can we become an influencer. When we focus on our careers and developing our skills we get promoted.

The more we attend to and practice meditation, the more mindful and attentive we become. The more attention we devote to our object of meditation, the keener our attention and concentration skills become.

Why do we need better attention and concentration skills? To stay present and grounded in this moment. This is the only place life happens and the only place we have a choice about our behavior. We cannot be kind and compassionate yesterday while we inhabit this moment. Nor can we act with value and attention toward environmental sustainability tomorrow while inhabiting this moment. We can only do it now. If, when the next moment comes and we remember we value environmental awareness or doing no harm in our interactions with others, we act in that moment. We cannot do it now and save it up for tomorrow. Nor can we undo yesterday.

Christina Feldman suggests, “For anything at all to change in our lives, we must first be aware – clearly, immediately connected to the present moment.”

Attention and concentration skills allow us to be present in the moment, and to become aware of when we aren’t in this moment so we can return. It’s like listening to a friend, and then realizing that you aren’t really listening but instead are caught up in thinking about something else. In that moment of recognizing that you had an intention to listen – after all, that’s why you are with this friend at this moment – and you weren’t. This is a mindful moment, the gold of our practice. The awareness of not listening opens the door to coming back to our intention. To begin mindful listening once again.

The act of remembering we aren’t in this moment and returning mirrors the mindfulness training we practice. Following our object of meditation, the rise and fall of the breath. Becoming aware that I have lost my attention on my breath and am thinking instead. Returning to my original intention of following my breath. Setting the intention of bringing my attention fully to the present moment. Recognizing I have lost my attention in the present moment. Bringing attention back.

Edward Titchener, a renowned psychologist said, “Attention is the nerve of the whole psychological system.”

To be truly awake and present in our life as it unfolds, we need to be paying close attention. We become mindful of where our attention is – on what happened yesterday, what could happen tomorrow, or what is happening in this moment as it unfolds. Cultivating awareness through building our attention and concentration skills brings awake in our life, over and over again. It reminds us that being present in this moment is the only life there is.