 Hi, welcome to Seymour's World commentary on Think Tech Hawaii. You can find all my commentaries in Seymour's World episodes on the Think Tech Hawaii website. I welcome your comments by email, text, or phone. You can reach me at Seymour.Kazimersky at gmail.com or 808-551-3222. Today our topic is living in the present. If you have been following Seymour's World, you know that I, like you, are full of contradictions. In one show I talk about focusing on the future, in another I talk about mindfulness, and then in another I talk about looking back. So hopefully you'll understand that life is never perfect. I'm not, and we all need to be cognizant of the different energies we need to make a better life for ourselves and our families. Let's face it. We live in the age of distraction, yet one of life's sharpest paradoxes is that your brightest future hinges on your ability to pay attention to the present. Here's a story for you. A friend was walking in the desert when he found the telephone to God. The setting was a rock concert where 50,000 people descend for eight days of radical self-expression, dancing and socializing, meditating, debauchery and whatever else you can think of. A phone booth in the middle of the desert with a sign that said, Talk to God was a surreal sight. The idea was that you picked up the phone and God, or someone claiming to be God, would be at the other end to ease your pain. So when God came on the line asking how he could help, my friend was ready. How can I live more in the moment, he asked. Too often, he felt the beautiful moments of his life were drowned out by a cacophony of self-consciousness and anxiety. What could he do to hush the buzzing of his mind? Breathe, replied a soothing male voice. My friend flinched at the tired new-age yoga-style mantra, then reminded himself, I've got to keep an open mind. When God talks, you listen. God said, whenever you feel anxious about your future or your past, just breathe. God continues, try it with me a few times right now. Breathe in and breathe out. And despite himself, my friend began to relax. Now, let's you and I take two deep breaths. Ready? Feel better? Remember, you are not your thoughts. Life unfolds in the present, but so often we let the present slip away, allowing time to rush past unobserved and unceased and squandering the precious seconds of our lives as we worry about the future and ruminate about what's past. We all know that we're living in a world that contributes in a major way to mental fragmentation, disintegration, and distraction. We're always doing something, and we allow little time to practice stillness and calm. I am probably more guilty than you, as I allow my mind to always go at warp speed. When we're at work, we fantasize about being on vacation. On vacation, we worry about the work piling up on our desks. We dwell on intrusive memories of the past, or fret about what may or may not happen in the future. We don't appreciate the living present because our monkey minds, as Buddhists call them, vault from thought to thought, like monkeys swinging from one tree to another. Most of us don't undertake our thoughts in awareness. Rather, our thoughts control us. Ordinary thoughts cross course through our mind like a deafening waterfall. In order to feel more in control of our minds and our lives, to find the sense of balance that eludes us, we need to step out of this current to pause and to rest in stillness, to stop doing and focus on just being. We need to live more in the moment. Living in the moment, also called mindfulness, remember the show we did on this topic a few weeks ago? It's a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. When you become mindful, you realize that you are not your thoughts. You become an observer of your thoughts, from moment to moment, without judging them. Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experiences. Cultivating a non-judgmental awareness of the present bestows a whole host of benefits. Mindfulness reduces stress, boosts immune function, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and helps patients cope with cancer. I know because I find using mindfulness helps me in my own cancer. By alleviating stress, spending a few minutes a day actively focusing on living in the moment reduces the risk of heart disease. Mindful people are happier, more exuberant, more empathetic, and more secure. They have higher self-esteem and are more accepting of their own weaknesses. Anchoring awareness in the here and now reduces the kinds of impulsivity and reactivity that underlie depression, binge eating, and attention problems. Mindful people can hear negative feedback without feeling threatened. They fight less with their romantic partners and are more accommodating and less defensive. As a result, mindful couples have more satisfying relationships. Living in the present involves a profound paradox. You can't pursue it for its benefits. That's because the expectation of reward launches a future-oriented mindset, which subverts the entire process. Instead, you just have to trust that the rewards will come. So my friends, let's breathe more. And let's remember that living in the present will make you smile more, giving us all a better and a fruitful life. I hope this helps you have a great day. My name is Seymour Kazimurski. You're watching a commentary of Seymour's world. Aloha.