5. Living in The Moment
Science and humanities are poles apart, well, that’s what we’re told the day we’re supposed to select our higher education stream.
But it is not always right.
A few years back the writer and physicist Alan Lightman had the credit of having both – being the first ever known professor to receive a joint appointment in the sciences and humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. I feel we can believe in him more than others.
His 1992 bestseller "Einstein's Dreams," is a collection of short stories that explores the nature of time. In this book he has very clearly defined how humans experience seconds and centuries. Yes, days and months and years have different connotations when we look back.
In one of the short stories Alan Lightman writes: "In a cosmos where everything is temporary, the only thing that has meaning is the moment because in 50 years or 100 years or 200 years, there's not going to be anything left. Not only nothing left of our bodies, but very little left of what we do as individuals.”
Further, he explains: "It makes me pay attention more. I think we have a tendency to sleepwalk through various periods. You're in the room, other people are in the room, and you're thinking about something else, you're not really there. That's life, passing us by."
He doesn’t believe that the cosmos has any meaning, or even life has meaning. He writes: "I don't believe in a universal or absolute meaning. I don't think there's common meaning we all strive for in our lives. I think each person has to decide what is meaningful to them, and then figure out how to live their life according to that meaning."
I agree with him. Because to achieve what he says we have to live in the moment only then we can fully utilize the short span of time that is at our disposal. Concentrating on the job in hand increases efficiency. Ancient philosophers and religious traditions have been emphasizing about the benefits of living in the moment.
Living in the moment also termed mindfulness is at the root of Yoga, Taoism and Buddhism and it is considered to bring happiness. People who practice this are more empathetic, most secure and highly exuberant. However, it was considered just another good habit and nothing more since there had been no scientific evidence to support this advice.
In 2010 some psychologists at Harvard University collected information on the thoughts and feelings of some people to find out how often they were focused on what they were doing, and what made them happier. Their report concluded that ‘reminiscing, thinking ahead or daydreaming tends to make people more miserable,’ not necessarily if they think about a bad experience; even when they are thinking about something pleasant still, they are miserable.
Thankfully, in one way, only human beings have the ability to focus on things that aren't happening right now, allowing them to reflect on the past or anticipate and plan for the future. The mind is capable of imagining things that in fact might never occur.
However, the other way this unique ability brings a lot of unhappiness as it’s always the easy way out to indulge in daydreaming rather than concentrating on the activities one is busy with. Twenty first century is the age of distraction. With multiple gizmos and information flood it’s very hard to live in the moment.
But that’s the only way out.