Sean Crowley asks himself where his mind is?
You can never return to the past and tomorrow never comes. You are always stuck right here, right now. Not literally at 18:12 on the 22nd of November 2016, in the Boole Library – that would be the wrong way to think about here and now, even if that is literally where I am (here and now.) But if you think about it, you never leave the present moment. At no point in your life did you not exist in the present and yet, sometimes we forget that.
Too often we don’t pay attention to the present moment, when we’re planning about the future or worrying about the past. When we do this, our attention is dragged away from the present, like if I were looking up flights to Johannesburg (or any other major city for that matter) and I was fully focused on the computer screen, when a man in a gorilla suit might walk right beside me, through the library, and I wouldn’t notice. That would be a shame because it just so happened that man in the gorilla suit was giving away free sweets (jelly snakes if you were wondering) and the ultimate understanding of how one should live one’s life (to enjoy eating jelly snakes and interactions with gorilla people, as opportunities to do so present themselves). And Ryanair’s page timed out… Damn it.
Now imagine that computer is your mind, and the gorilla is your (perception of) external reality and vóila, you have a fitting allegory, even if it is random and rushed.
The general principle I’m getting at here is that when we pay attention to the future, we forget the only time where we can do anything i.e. the present (because the present is the only time there is). So, we neglect living, and sweets, in favour of theoretical living. The thing is, if and when I get to Johannesburg, to enjoy that at all, I will have to know how to pay attention to the present while I’m there. And if I can’t pay attention to the present right now, how do I know I will remember to pay attention then?
If that seems complicated, it is only because I wrote it down. There’s a really simple way to pay attention to the present and the way to do so is to pay attention to something that is always there. I, and lots of other people, suggest your breath. If you pay attention to your breath or any other thing that is consistently present (for example sound / silence around you, or your heartbeat) you’re being mindful. You know where your mind is, it is paying attention to that thing – hopefully your breath. Now just keep doing that and you’re being mindful.
If you close your eyes, and pay attention to what your breath feels like, entering at your nostrils, expanding your belly and chest and you keep doing that for a few minutes, you will find that your breath slows. You only pay attention to your breath, nothing else matters. If other things distract you, recognise that said things distracted you (it’s not a problem) then start paying attention to your breath again. The things most likely to distract you, as I hope you will realise, are your thoughts. If you do that for a space of time, interesting things start happening, like you don’t get distracted as much. Eventually, you become a happier, more relaxed person, who worries less and concentrates more, but that doesn’t matter; all that matters is this breath. You could try that now if you wanted. Yes you, with the magazine and the face.
Just learn to notice what you’re paying attention to – that’s the whole thing. There’s loads of places to practice: in fact, you can do it literally everywhere. If you would like to learn a little more about mindfulness there’s loads of books about it, there’s videos on YouTube and everything. Just know that reading about it isn’t what’s going to make you mindful, practice as they say makes perfect. There’s probably many groups who practice mindfulness around campus, and I can tell you for sure that there’s one that meet in the UCC Chaplaincy prayer room at 5:15 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Now, to finish with a story: There was once a young man who came to an old man, and he asked him how he could stop worrying all the time (the old guy is called Bodhidharma, should you want to look him up).
“If your mind is troubling you, show me your mind and I will pacify it”, said the old man.
“When I look for my mind I cannot find it,” replied the young.
“There, your mind is pacified.”