You know that feeling when everything is running smoothly? Your brain isn’t buried by worrisome futures or unfinished business. Time passes as it should. You’re not waiting for things to happen, they’re just happening, and you’re aware of the world unfolding around you. Welcome to the Present. Careful though. Without practice, the Present is slipperier than a squid in a bucket of lube.
For me, living in the Present is comparable to the life of a happy dog. Each new day is filled with sensory cues that make you grateful for being alive. A happy dog doesn’t need much besides food, shelter and companionship. It wakes up with new eyes, excited for the moments it’s afforded. Obviously, a human’s life is a bit more complicated than a dog’s, but that doesn’t mean we’re incapable of living presently. Even though you have jobs, and bills, and relationships, that all need tending to, you can still take the time to understand that we’re all just thinking organisms trying to navigate this planet and find our own version of happiness. These moments come from seemingly insignificant occurrences like sunrises, the laughter of your child, or a chance meeting with someone you haven’t seen in a long time. If you could cumulatively re-watch all of these moments in succession, you’d probably say that you have a happy life. At the same time, there’s a good chance that you’d neglect to see the less than happy moments of your life. Those unhappy times are always there, and completely necessary for you to appreciate the happy times. In this case, practicing mindfulness is a big help. Without practice, the Present is fleeting. The happy dog in your mind is being upset by an abusive owner, abandonment, and isolation. One way to achieve presence is through meditation.
Meditation has been supplemented as a means of spiritual awakening, mental clarity as well as harnessing a higher potential of the human brain, for millennia. The earliest written records of meditation come from India around 1500 BC. Traditionally speaking, meditation had no scientific backing until very recently. It didn’t need it. Meditation practitioners were well aware of the benefits that meditation holds. The religions and philosophical cultures that first introduced meditation to the world, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, aren’t exactly the types of groups who seek attention and notoriety. These eastern philosophies taught their followers about improving one’s self before attempting to improve the world because, realistically, it’s the same goal. They teach us that the answers that we seek are already inside ourselves. And, they find no use in forcing people to follow an almighty and all-powerful authority figure. The name “Buddha” can be translated into “awakening” or “the awakened one.” And all Buddhists believe that everyone is capable of becoming a Buddha. One of the more infamous Buddhist monks, Thich Nhat Hanh, was quoted saying,
“It is exactly because the Buddha was a human being that countless Buddhas are possible.”
It is very probable that peace from anxiety and depression that you search for can be found in meditation, in your own body, and with your own ability.
The scientific aspect of meditation is still relatively new compared to the practice itself. However, a lot of promising research is slowly bubbling up to the surface and making its way into the mainstream. A study published in Science Magazine titled, “A Wandering Mind is an Unhappy Mind,” used a smartphone app to track people’s happiness and rate of “mind-wandering” occurrences. The subjects who used the app were asked questions at random times throughout the day about what activities they were partaking in, what level of happiness were they at, and whether they were thinking about something other than the task they were engaged in or about something else, something called “experience sampling.” The results showed that 46.9% of the samples showed mind-wandering. This could suggest that a very large portion of society isn’t even aware of the things they do during any given day. With this evidence, the researchers were able to suggest that people were less happy when caught in mind-wandering than when they were in a more concentrated or meditative state. For me, this adds strength to the belief that the key to healing our mental health disorders might lay inside our brains and not inside of a pill bottle. The term for the action, or inaction, of mind-wandering, depending on how you want to look at it, has been aptly named “Default-Mode,” which has been associated with anxiety and depression.
In our brains, the Default-Mode Network, or DMN, is situated in the limbic lobe, or limbic system, which encompasses a wide area of the brain in general. The limbic system is also known as the emotional center of the brain. More specifically, the DMN conducts a lot of its work within the Posterior Cingulate Cortex (PCC). Just like the Amygdalae, the PCC helps us show and understand emotions, and with recalling memories. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences of the United States of America called, “Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity,” states that the PCC is highly active when people are experiencing episodes of mind-wandering. Within this study’s investigations, three different types of meditation (yes, there’s more than one) were considered as having possible benefits for mind-wandering. Loving-Kindness meditation is helpful to adopt acceptance of one’s self and others. Concentration meditation is exactly what you think it is. It keeps the meditator planted in the present when pulled into the future or past. And, Choiceless Awareness meditation can be useful to help meditators’ thoughts flow freely and to accept them instead of placing judgment upon them. The study hypothesizes that adding these meditation methods to your daily routine could help facilitate the deactivation of the DMN, resulting in a more “presently-centered” you.
In a study published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine called, “Effortless awareness: using real time neurofeedback to investigate correlates of posterior cingulate cortex activity in meditators' self-report,” researchers analyzed data about experiences that people had as they meditated while hooked up to a fMRI scanner. This data showed that the meditators PCC’s would deactivate when in a meditative state or become activated when they were in a distracted or wandering frame of mind. This could suggest that meditation has the ability to physically shut off parts of your brain that may be a hindrance to anxious and depressive people.
When our environments and lifestyles become the root of our problems, drastic changes need to be made. Then modern rat-race is rife with unhealthy competition. We all fight for the opportunity to stand on top of the societal mountain. We disregard our personal health for empty promises of a better life. Instead of changing the game to fit us, we obsessively play the game until it kills us. Competition is a beneficial aspect of nature and of human life. It helps us progress as a species in discovering new technologies, to fight disease, or to make life less dangerous for the misfortunate. Competition is necessary but can be easily tilted to the side of detriment. 70-hour work weeks are becoming the norm. Having our phones within hand’s reach, like we’re caring for a newborn, is seen as the status quo. So many of us remain silent as employers send us emails and texts while we sit at home trying to be part of a family. We accept all of this behaviour because we believe that it if we put up with it, endure it, survive it, we might get a chance to eat at the king’s table. And sure, it’s possible, and you should definitely strive to be your best and to have to best life for you and the people you love. But, when that success comes at the price of your mental and physical health, you’ve already lost the game. Balance is the keystone to a healthy life. A great quote from the Taoist Master, Lao Tzu, comes from his book, “Tao Te Ching.” It reads:
“Better stop short than fill to the brim.
Over-sharpen the blade and the edge will soon blunt
Amass a store of gold, and no one can protect it.
Claim wealth and titles, and disaster will follow.
Retire when the work is done.
This is the way of heaven.”
*** I'd like to take a minute to thank all of the people who have reached out to me and shared stories about their mental health struggles, before I started this blog, as well as, since. This is a huge part of the reason why I decided to share my story. You've all shown a ton of courage by talking to me, or anybody, about the things that are taking up too much space in your minds. You certainly aren't alone and you've taken huge steps just by talking. And a big thanks to all of the people who've provided feedback and criticism. It all helps. If you like my content, feel free to share or subscribe so I can get the message out further.
Thanks,
Bryce.