If you follow this blog, you’ll know that I’ve talked about how mindfulness means being in the ‘here and now.’

In our current lives, it’s not easy to live in the present moment. We always have things which pop up, either unknown or expected occasions that we need to arrange and anticipate. It can feel like we need to have every inch of our lives scheduled - and in being so organized for the future, it also leaves ample room to ruminate about the past.

Modern life is fast and a bit hectic, with so much input from outside sources as well. Most of us operate at a base level of anxiety anyway, sometimes without realising it, and at a certain level of unhappiness about our life situations. This is why we can feel exhausted as we struggle with what we have done and what we need to do. No time for ‘you’.

Living in the present sounds great, but what does it actually mean to “live in the present moment?” Of course I live in the present! I’m here now aren’t I?

Being in the present, the “here and now,” is a term that means we aren’t just going through the motions right now, but we are aware and conscious of what is happening in this moment. I’ll refer to my morning coffee again as an example - I can do all the steps involved to make that coffee, but if I also make a conscious decision to notice the aroma of the ground beans, the swirl of the milk as I pour it into my cup, the clink of the spoon as I stir....all these little things I notice are being in the moment. In those times where I’m paying attention to the here and now, I am not being pulled away by ruminating over past events or worrying about what is still to come. I am here, and I am enjoying my coffee.

It’s all about connection. Staying connected to your surroundings, to yourself and to what you are doing. We have praised the multitasker and neglected the mindful, and not realized how that perpetuates poor mental health

If you’ve sat down to carry out some mindful exercises and felt far too distracted, don’t give up. Maybe you are someone who needs something to look at rather than closing your eyes and visualising (my hand is up here!)

Here’s a little exercise you could try out.

Sit somewhere with an outside view.

Look at everything you can see - instead of reducing each thing to a category, i.e. ‘leaf’, ‘grass’, ‘bird’ etc., try to notice a bit more - the sounds, the colors, the textures.

Go deeper again and watch the wind play through the trees. Observe the different movements and patterns. Think about how many movements there are in just this small patch of outside that you can see. Wonder what it would be like if this was the first time you’d seen this view.

Be aware but not obsessive, appreciate and try not to find something to criticize in the view.

If you start to drift away, bring yourself back by noticing a colour or a shape for example.

Practice doing this for a couple of minutes every day, and when you can, just do those simple steps of ‘noticing’ what is around you, what you are doing. Mindfulness is a kind of brain-training, and like any training, it can take time to see the benefits. Keep going, accept that it isn’t going to go perfectly each time, and if a particular daily exercise isn’t working for you, there are many different ones out there to try.