Dear Pearce:

I didn’t know about your last two posts above until a little while ago, this morning.

In your first of these two posts you wrote: “mindfulness is being present in the here and now and not incorporating once upon a time experiences into the here and now”- it is about focusing on the here-and-now. Here is a misunderstanding I had in the past: I wrongly thought that it was possible to not think about the past and future on a regular basis. What I learned is that the nature of our brain is such that it will go into the past again and again, no matter our focus and intent. The brain, in its nature, visits and evaluates the past so to learn from it and function better in the future. And so, it naturally goes into the future as well, so to practice better functioning in the future.

The point in mindfulness is not to get lost in ineffective, prolonged ruminations, living in the past -or the future- with minimal presence in the present (and therefore minimal learning from the past). My aim is to visit the past (a minute ago or many years ago) just long enough to learn or remind myself what I need to learn from it.

So as you think of the past, you did not fail in the practice of mindfulness, as long as you don’t get lost in the past.

After all, the past is presently imprinted in our brains, and often it gets triggered, in the present. This is part of mindfulness: notice past emotional experiences being triggered in the present.

Regarding your second post: I am not aware of any rule or regulation here that prohibits recommending a book. If you recommend a book, it will be helpful to me if you share what it is you liked about the book and how it helped you.

anita