Our mind, using the vehicle of our thoughts, shifts us back and forth in time – taking us often further and further away from the truth of our present experience. Through the filter of our evolutionary negative-bias (our innate ability to seek safety by a hyper-awareness to what could go wrong) we can get stuck in loops of anxiety and doubt.
While our mind may be time travelling, and creating alternate realities with our thoughts and even feelings, remember that your body is here, now. Realising that we have begun time travelling, and then choosing to return to the here and now, is the very practice of moment to moment mindfulness. Using a practice like the Grounding Breath is a helpful way to reconnect with yourself.
As James Baraz describes mindfulness – “simply being in the present moment, without wishing it were different” – we can let go our obsessions with what if, and awaken instead to this moment – as it is.
