29 Jul Seize the moment with each new experience this summer!
“Seize the day!” is a well known motivational mantra which many people adopt to help them towards their goals. To fully embrace living in the moment and acknowledge all of our senses and emotions we can take on the mantra “Seize the moment!”
To live in the moment, being in the now or mindful, means being conscious and aware of being in the present with all of your senses. To live in the moment as you take on a new experience means you can “Seize the moment” for you.
I recently attended a couple of concerts where many people had half their attention on their phones as they filmed the bands’ performances. It struck me that these people watching were watching one of their life’s events through their phones like a detached second hand experience instead of participating fully in the atmosphere all around them. Now I am not saying we shouldn’t embrace today’s technology, but I believe we can find a happy medium of recording our experience to look back on, and also consciously appreciate the present.
During this summer you may be visiting new places, going to summer music festivals, trying new skills, or going to one off family events such as a wedding. Each event is a unique period in your life which you can look back on as a special memory.
You already have the skills to build these powerful dendrites to fully live in the moment of a new experience, and enjoy reliving the moment in your memory!
Visualise your experience beforehand! Anticipating a holiday, and deciding where you want to visit, the activities you are going to try, preparing for the journey are all a vital part of the experience. There has been a lot of neurological research during the past few years which has found visualising an experience beforehand can be as powerful in strengthening the brain’s dendrites as actually living the experience in actual time. This has been proved vital in sports psychology for athletes preparing for major races as their dendrites are strengthened more powerfully through visualisation.
Write a powerful, emotive affirmation of your experience. On Advance’s courses, you have learned about visualisation and writing affirmations which empower you to achieve your goals through building and strengthening your dendrites. The trainers encourage you to think about what you hear, smell, taste, feel as well as touch when you are visualising a goal because this makes the affirmation more powerful. Writing down the experience in the present places you in your achievement and strengthening the brain’s connections.
Consciously switch off your phone for a while! Remember, your brain’s memory is far more powerful than your phone’s memory. You have the power to create strong emotional visual emotive memories by actually living in the moment. By focusing your attention on the band, comedian, show, sports event, or wedding you attend, and putting away your phone, you are taking charge of creating your own memories.
Make time to take some special photos of an event, and then consciously be aware of the whole atmosphere. Every person whom you meet deserves your full attention, the historical monument you visit or the band you watch at a festival is there in your life at that moment. Your brain is taking its own visual images to form its dendrites.
Seize that moment! As you watch a band, follow a parade, swim in the ocean, watch your best friend take their vows, take that moment to stop and breathe, and take note of all your senses and emotions. Just as you prepare an affirmation, seize the moment of your life’s experience for yourself.
Keep a gratitude or success journal. After a new experience, write down a personal account of your feelings, and consider all your sense. As yourself what was unique in that experience? Did someone say something funny or poignant you want to record? Were there any important details you want to note to remember? Write them down. Every detail that stimulates an emotion and empowers your visual account will strengthen that memory.
You can take control of living each moment more fully by being consciously aware, being prepared, and taking time to record it for yourself – not just on your phone screen, but by thinking about it and writing it down.
When you seize the moment you can live your life in true technicolour and emotions fully embracing the moment, and then relive your memory by thinking through the experience afterwards so that you can say later “I was there. And it felt sensational.”