Our preoccupation with getting to the end of these tasks, the end of the day, the weekend, the next long week, the holidays, leads to moments in between being too easily dismissed. Have you ever found yourself trying to listen to someone, but finding it difficult to focus on what they are saying, the mind wanders off not really present, not really hearing what the other person is saying? Maybe you are rushing to get another few items checked off your 'to do list' or thinking about the conversation you had earlier. For some, it can feel like a hazy, foggy, distant and disconnected feeling. This is a common occurrence for many people, when facing the pressures and demands of modern life.
Too frequently, we breeze past and ignore much of human experience, dwelling on the past and/or worrying about the future. Interestingly, rigorous research highlights that people perform poorer at cognitive tasks when they multitask compared to single tasking. Ophir, Nass and Wagner 2009 at the University of Utah, found that, those who participated in the trend of multitasking heavily with media had a diminished capacity to focus attention on a dominant topic. They experienced difficulty filtering out other stimuli in their environment with overall poorer performance on a test of task switching ability.
The common tendency to multi-task, to over stretch ourselves, in a rush to get things done, striving to get to a better moment, takes its toll. When thoughts of tomorrow or next week take over, we risk missing out on potentially precious and fulfilling experiences. The untoward fact is that, when we reach that moment we thought would bring us feelings of ease and happiness, it doesn't always meet our expectations. The stress remains in the body. Not alone can this pattern reduce our satisfaction of life, it lends itself to us disregarding important cues or signals the body and mind provide us with, in order to, maintain mental and physical well-being.
Thankfully, mindfulness can provide us with freedom from this. There is fullness and contentment in so many of our everyday experiences, in particular when in the company of those we care about. It can provide us with a sense of being anchored or grounded, in the present; focused on the task at hand, the conversation topic, the experience itself. Importantly, it affords us the opportunity to gain clarity, a calmer mind and saviour more moments for a richer, fuller life.
