By Chef K.T. Murphy
Staying in the moment can be an important way to reduce stress and learn to
appreciate our lives a little more. It can be a little strange if you aren’t used to it, however, and you may not know where to begin. This article will suggest six ways to stay in the moment each day. We are given tools to complete our tasks for the day we just need to look find and use those tools.
1. Practice A “Liturgy Of The Hours”
Looking into your religious tradition can be a great way to stay in the moment because most religious traditions have practices that focus your attention onto the moment. Islam is a particularly strong example because devout followers are required to stop what they are doing to pray at set times throughout the day.
Stopping what you are doing to pray focuses your mind on the divine, but it also allows you to return your mind to the task at hand with new-found focus.
Catholicism, a major branch of Christianity, has a similar practice called “The Liturgy of the Hours.” This practice is almost exclusively done by the members of some religious orders, but it can be done by anyone. Judaism doesn’t have anything quite like the other major world practices, but it does have specific prayers to say when doing common tasks like washing your hands or preparing food.
2. Look For Things To Be Grateful For
Judaism is also the source of another helpful practice to stay in the moment, namely “blessing.” We often think of blessing as a kind of ritual, but in this context, it means “showing approval of” or “being grateful for.” Some Jewish sources recommend blessing one thousand things each day, though in this they really mean that you should always be looking out for things to be thankful for.
This is also a trick that has recently been picked up by secular psychologists who say that constantly looking for things to be thankful for improves your overall mood. Actively looking for things to be thankful for also encourages you to be aware of yourself and your surroundings in ways that you might not be used to.
3. Pay More Attention To Aspects Of Activities
Mindfulness is another great way to stay in the moment. Most people think of mindfulness in the context of meditation, but you can mindfully do anything. Mindfully doing things basically means reminding yourself that you are doing them as you do them.
You can eat mindfully by paying attention to the taste, smell, and texture of food as you chew it; by thinking about what muscles you require to chew the food; by thinking about how the food feels as it moves through different parts of your mouth and as you swallow. You can mindfully mow the lawn by thinking about the smell of the cut grass; feeling what parts of your body are exerting force on the lawnmower as you push it. You can mindfully – you get it.
4. Practice mindful Breathing
Mindful breathing is one of the more common mindfulness practices. You probably don’t want to do it all of the time, but it’s probably one of the more powerful things that you can do mindfully, especially if you’re feeling stressed.
Your breath is the only thing that you can do that is controlled by your autonomous nervous system (so that you don’t have to actively control it) and by your somatic nervous system (so that you can actively control it). As a result, it can serve as a helpful bridge between the two. It can also be a great opportunity for you to focus on how the air in your area tastes, smells, and even feels.
5. Think About Time
One way to stay in the moment is to think again about how you think about time.
Time is something that we are taught to understand early in our lives because it is so present in everything that we do. As a result, we tend to take advantage of it. You can reset your appreciation for time by thinking about it in ways other than just when you have to be where. Try this little exercise: set a kitchen time or an alarm on your phone for one minute and just sit in silence until the alarm goes off. Chances are, a minute feels a lot longer than you were expecting.
Now break a day into segments of ten, fifteen, or half an hour each. You may feel like time flies when you’re busy or drags when you’re bored, but having a reminder of the passage of time that goes off no matter what you are doing can be very refreshing.
6. Attribute Meaning To Moments
Another good way to stay in the moment is to think about moments as discrete events. From time to time throughout the day, stop and think about what you are doing and why. This can be a good way to take a break from the moment, attribute importance to it, and then return with a new appreciation.
Different people like to approach things differently, and not everything on this list might be for you. It is what i used to change my stars. Hopefully, however, you will attempt some of these suggestions with an open mind and find one or two that really help you to stay in the moment.
All the best
Chef Murph
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