Our mind is always thinking about the future or the past and doesn’t focus on the present. That’s because it doesn’t need to! Most of the things we do from the time we get up to the time we go back to bed are done unconsciously, without needing to think about them. For example, actions like brushing your teeth, combing your hair, getting dressed, eating your breakfast, driving to the office, using your computer and your phone, all are done automatically, without any thinking.

Despite this our mind is still in a constant state of activity. Why is this? We are often caught up thinking about things in the past that we could have done differently, or anticipating the future, either with a positive or negative bias on the outcome. It is actually pretty hard to think about the present moment. All you can really do is label its components for example ‘I’m in a room, there’s a chair, here’s my computer, there’s a picture’ etc

Even then the labels that we put on things are generally from our past experiences of them. We don’t often stop to really engage with that plant in the corner, a glass of water or our chair. We already know what they are and tend to engage with our labels about them rather than the items themselves.

This also applies to people. When your spouse walks in the room it is easy to see them through the eyes of labels such as ‘spouse, likes ham sandwiches, doesn’t like mess, likes rabbits, loves me, is honest, gets in bad moods, has short hair’ etc rather than connecting with the person as they are fresh in this moment.

There is a whole reality waiting for to explore without our judgments and interpretations of it. In fact reality without your opinions about it is very different from your normal experience, because we generally react to our interpretations and beliefs rather than to reality itself.

The ability to neutrally look at the present situation and be aware of the thoughts passing through your mind in a non-judgmental way without engaging with them helps develop the capacity to see life without labels.

You can start practicing by taking a look around where you are sitting now, and observe how your mind is responding to each of the objects that you see. For example if you are looking at your computer, notice if your mind wanders into the past to tell you a story about the shop you bought it from 3 years ago, or goes into the future to remind you that you must get it fixed next week.

Once you let go of these thoughts and focus back in the present, then try to look at the item without using any memory of information you knew about it. You should be left just noticing attributes like shape, colour, texture and size, yet without giving any of those things names.

This leaves you to engage innocently with the world around in a fresh, new way with an open enquiry into what is in front of you. Once you can be fully present with items around you, practice being fully there with people and see how that can transform your interactions.

Then practice being with yourself without any labels and notice what your experience in this moment is actually like. Notice any body sensations, the perceptions of your surroundings and the experience of being alive.

Simply put – Be Here Now.

Please add your comments or questions below and I will get straight back to you. Thanks for sharing :-)