Life today can be measured in agility, efficiency, optimization, time to market, operational practicality and so many concepts that aim to take shortcuts in the natural course of being, whether to occupy a competitive position or for fear of being out of the spotlight, what in another world of trends is called “Fomo”.
I will talk about the ability to know how to be. Just that and I understand that it bothers, worries and even annoys, so this is an ideal time to jump to another note, if what you really want is to be elsewhere.
It was about living, not being alive
The most innocent mistake when interpreting being is wanting to reason it and thus, contain it instead of assuming it and inhabiting it. Being caught is caught as one is planted: with the posture, context and circumstances that surround —but do not replace— the moment.
Follow us on Google News to keep you always informed
Recognizing the quality of attention that is applied to the moment, feeling and being aware of what is happening, noticing the gravity of the force and keeping the inertia – that dictatorship – of distraction at bay, is what is understood by being.
Worshipers of a rush that does not have time to be, we have founded and perfected a cult of amnesia: everything suggests that we are there, the body seems to confirm it, just one detail: the mind has fled.
Some 16th century merchants illustrate magic with linguistic games. When they were alive offering cat meat as if it were a specimen several times more exotic and expensive, they gave not only the pussycat for a hare, but also the idea to coin phrases such as “el gatazo”. Scam. To appear, not to be – or at least, to be.
Just being, then, necessarily nourishes the forcefulness of inhabiting the moment, understanding its purpose and dedicating to it, like Japanese artisans —shokunin katagi—, the most careful detail.
Being is much more than doing nothing. It involves recognizing the moment, its beginning, stability and conclusion. Eating means — in this context — just eating. To be reading means to be reading — and not to be imagining, remembering or pondering. Just being is taking on the role of the present moment and saturating it with attention.
Follow the information about business and current affairs in Forbes Mexico
But today this proposal may seem primitive and unattractive for an efficient, agile and productive dynamic. Until the nature of what is produced is questioned.
Practicing being
What at first seems like a joke now becomes a challenge that more and more CEOs are adopting, not only in their personal repertoire, but even organizationally.
It is enough to practice attention to become familiar with it and to build a model with which the mind generates and maintains presence and is not distracted, moment by moment.
It all starts with the task of focusing a point and keeping it there, in mind, without distraction or grasping. And from here, the following observations:
Follow the business information in our specialized section
- Following the breath with attention without having to be controlled manages to sharpen a tool that is always available and that determines the response to stress and any challenge, decision and interaction.
- Observing the mind may seem sterile or boring, especially if the wheel has been yielded to autopilot for decades, but a slight attempt is enough to show that it is out of control and find motivation to compensate for this fact.
- Focusing on a point of the body to fix the attention on the breath (nose, chest or abdomen) and counting 10 inhalations and exhalations freely in a hurry, will show this deterioration of concentration. Reaching 3 without a thought hindering the desired clarity would deserve access to a medal table for the distracted.
- The obstacle to paying attention is thinking. It is not stopping the brain functions that allow us to remain indolent in the face of an upcoming environmental cataclysm, it is just avoiding giving in to distraction and knowing that there are evolutionary structures more relevant than reason, such as consciousness.
- Continuously knowing how you are – and it is not merely good or bad – leads to learning a new skill with which to discover what the mind and its response processes are like.
Follow the information about the world in our international section
- When the mind stops identifying with the contents of the thoughts, it becomes free and focused. She becomes functional and can even turn to look at herself and study herself.
- Another exercise is to notice the presence of the body in space and its changing sensations. The idea is to pay attention to the moment without trying to modify it and to be aware of the sensations of the body. They seem not to be important, but they connect with the deeper attention faculty, which makes the difference in taking the automatic pilot out of the routine.
- Asking for someone’s attention is as obvious as it is alarming. Either we are not being relevant or our circle is ungrateful and immature. Communication should be fluid and natural, without any screen to distract the process.
Why do we get so distracted?
Scientists of attention understand it from the nature of being and habituation: we are not educated to refine the most transcendent part of being, on the contrary, we get used to absence and reaction.
Find here the most outstanding news of Mexican politics
Or, how else would we have discovered that the dinosaur in the browser that accompanies losing the internet can not only move, but jump cacti, dodge pterodactyls and even break records that will make you forget the search that led to that page?
We get so distracted that it seems like a normal and even pleasant state. Advertisers turned the experience into another item to add to the cart. To the extent that an experience matters more to sell campaigns than to practice everyday life, we will be condemned to waste the most important resource we have (and it is not WhatsApp).
Just being reconciles being with your space. The physical and mental experiences through which we navigate the days define life and with it, the way in which we relate to the surrounding events that define and nurture it. Not surprisingly, the buzzword is experience.
Realization is the active result of just being — not, being alone. Whether in a group, or in a personal way, like Montaigne, one should not point to the fate of his avatars, but rather rehearse himself.
Subscribe to Forbes Mexico
Contact:
Eduardo Navarrete specializes in Editorial Management, Innovation and User Experience *
Twitter: @elnavarrete
The opinions expressed are solely the responsibility of their authors and are completely independent of the position and editorial line of Forbes Mexico.