Hi, everyone!
Happy Thursday!
Happy summer and holiday if you have it.
Today, I will write about how to live in the present. I got the inspiration after reading Fabian's blog (https://www.su-re.co/post/why-choreographers-are-researchers) and answering his question about a moment when we stopped achieving something because of overthinking. So, I remember when I had training for the Patriot Energy program around five years ago. This program is from Ministry and Energy and Mineral Resources. We would live in a remote village and monitor the renewable energy project—one person for one village.
One of the training sessions was about how to live in the present. It was my first time hearing and knowing that topic. I love to do multitasking works, and my friends say that I'm good at multitasking. However, personally, I think I do not do multitasking. I do how to shift our works swiftly. Besides, I love to simulate my works in my mind, including simulating what the result is. For example, I will simulate the best and worst scenarios after doing something or simulate my future days. I am ENTJ and choleric, so I need to know the result and prepare everything in my mind. Sometimes, when I drove my scooter, I got lost without realizing that I chose the wrong way. It was because I had so many things in my mind. I didn't realize that I might be overthinking all the time.
In that training, we learned how to think and live in the present. We don't need to think about the past and future too much since we don't live in the past or future. The trainer assisted us to have a walk without any shoes, close our eyes and feel everything that we touch. He said that there are some ways to focus and live in the present. One of them is by doing sport. So, a few years ago, I tried archery. I did not do many sports, only badminton, taekwondo, jogging, and futsal. When I watched movies with wars or fights scenes, I thought they were so cool, so I wanted to try archery.
If you check this link (https://www.nfaausa.com/2015/09/top-5-health-benefits-of-archery/), you will find that archery will give you the top five health benefits. But I want to highlight the first point: Improve your focus. Remaining focused during a shot is the key point in this sport. An archer must focus on their target, focus on their form, ignore all distractions from their surrounding, and think only about their target. By constantly being focused, this sport can help us to focus and keep calm in every situation. If you already read one of our CEO's blogs (https://www.su-re.co/post/review-why-you-need-to-do-excise-to-be-smart), you will know that exercise is important.
I can always remember to live in the present through this sport and not think about the past and future too much. I found this article (https://medium.com/darius-foroux/stop-overthinking-and-live-in-the-present-214786c78745), and you can find some tips to overcome your overthinking and help you to live in the present. First, this article explains how to define your positive and negative thoughts and not to follow all your thoughts. Then, the best way to not follow all your thoughts is by living in the present. There are some tips, such as raise your awareness, observe your thoughts, and limit your thinking only to specific (current) moments.
I also found this article (https://positivepsychology.com/present-moment/) and love how it explains the importance of living in the present till 35 exercises to live in the present. We need to use present moment awareness to stop worrying and overthinking. Besides, there are some tips to balance our past, present, and future and how to live in the present but can plan the future. I remember the trainer of my training that I mentioned before taught us how to focus on our breath. If you have an apple watch, you should know that there will be a notification to take breathe. Breathe app aims to give us a moment to breathe mindfully. It will help us to more focus as well.
So, my question is do you have any moments when you feel that you need to live in the present?
Thank you for reading! ^^