Wednesday Wisdom

Week 1

PRESENT MOMENT AWARENESS

For our first week of Wednesday Wisdom, we are bringing things back to basics and into the present moment. This really gets to the core of the idea of Happynesshub at Home – taking things day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, moment by moment. During such uncertain times, it is useful to bring things back to the now.

Matthew Killingsworth at Harvard University discovered that we are significantly happier when focussed on the present moment. So let’s leave the past and future where they are, and focus on the present.

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”
– Henry David Thoreau

1.

To ground yourself, and slow down, try this simple exercise – which can be repeated any time during the day to re-centre.

  • Take just a few minutes to bring yourself into your senses.
  • Take a few deep breaths; inhaling fully and exhaling slowly and smoothly.
  • Firstly, tell yourself five things that you can see.
  • Then, notice four things you can touch.
  • What are three things you can hear?
  • Pay attention to two things you can smell.
  • Finally, what is one thing you can taste?

5 minutes

2.

A poem to inspire:

You Reading This, Be Ready
Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?
Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life–
What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

by William Stafford

2 minutes

3.

For a little more inspiration on why we should be more mindful, have a look at Andy Puddicombe’s TED Talk here.
10 minutes