The starting point for becoming antifragile is the ability to stop imagining the past, stop imagining the future, and stop imagining things that might (or might not) be happening on the other side of the world. The starting point of becoming antifragile is the ability to focus on the reality that is happening right here, right now, in this present moment.
The better we can do this, the better we will become able to carry out all the other steps of Inner Leadership: connecting with who we are at our best, making clearer sense of the situation, finding more options to move forward, choosing the best option, and then implementing that — with enthusiasm.
Present-moment awareness is the foundation upon which everything else is built.
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How To Come to Present-Moment Awareness:
If you want to come to present-moment awareness, pause for a moment. Sit or stand still. Breathe in and hold your breath for a count of three. Then let it out slowly and count to three again.
Now, bring your attention to what is happening around you. What can you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell in this present moment? Describe this as if you were describing it to another person. This is the reality that is happening around you, in this present moment.
Then shift your attention to what is happening in your body. Take another deep breath and let it out slowly. Scan through your body, from your toes to your shoulders, your fingertips to the top of your head. What are you feeling in the different parts of your body? Describe those feelings as if you were telling another person. Are you experiencing any recurrent thoughts? What are they? Describe them as if to another person. Take another deep breath, pause, and slowly release that breath. This is the reality that is happening within you, in this present moment.
Now bring your attention back to your surroundings. What is happening around you in this present moment? What can you see, hear, feel, taste, or smell? Describe it to yourself as if you were describing it to another person.
Repeat this cycle as many times as you find useful.
The more you practice this process, the more you will become aware of the reality that is actually happening in this present moment, in you and around you. And the more you practice, the easier it will become.
As this happens, you are also likely to notice three things:
- The more we become detached observers of our own thoughts and feelings (by describing them as if to somebody else) the less likely we are to get caught up in them. We realise that whatever we might be thinking or feeling now is different from what we were thinking or feeling two days ago, and it is different from what we will be thinking or feeling in two or three days’ time. Our thoughts and feelings are just experiences we have for a short time. They are not reality.
- The more we notice details of the reality that is actually happening, in us and around us, the less we get caught up in the imagined fantasies of our minds. Yes the past happened and yes some sort of future is going to happen. But it is not happening now. By being here now, we reconnect ourselves to reality as it truly is, rather than to our fantasy. And the more we connect with what is truly happening, here and now, the more we can let go of the past and start to build the future we most want to create.
- And third, the more we come to present-moment awareness, the more we realise that our inner churning is not so much caused by what happens but rather by the ways we think about and interpret what happens. The more we realise this, the more we can let our inner churning go. Which enables us to make clearer sense of the situation. Which enables us to find more opportunities to move forward. Which enables us to choose the best way forward, and inspire ourselves and others to make that future happen.
The better we can come to present-moment awareness, the more antifragile we become. Because as any tightrope walker knows, it is only when we are fully focused, undistracted, on what is actually happening, right here, right now, that we can truly do what needs to be done, here and now, to create the outcomes we most want in the future.
How much of your time do you currently spend thinking about the past, worrying about the future, or imagining things that might or might not be happening far away? Would it be useful to shift your focus back to what is actually happening, here and now, in this present moment, and to what you might then be able to do to achieve what matters most to you?
Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and tools for building inspiration in times of change.
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