Well-Being Snippet: Past, Present, Future

This video is one in a series of short videos that offer practical tools you can carry into your day to reduce stress and cultivate greater well-being.

This video offers you an invitation to notice where your mind is in any given moment: in the past, present or future. When we become more aware of where our mind wanders, we can come back to what is actually here now in this moment.

This video is purely for educational purposes and is not intended as psychological treatment or intervention of any kind.

Transcript

Hi, I'm Beth Kerland, And in today's little mini mindful exercise, I want to invite you to play a game called past, Present, And future. And so the idea of this one is to go through the course of your day and as often as you can remember. To pause and just notice where your mind is. And to notice, Is your mind in the past? Is your mind focused in the present moment on what's happening? Or are you somewhere in the future? Are you somehow, You know, Wandering off thinking about something that hasn't happened yet? And maybe planning or maybe worrying or whatever that is. And then once you notice where your mind is, To also ask yourself. You know, Wherever I'm bringing my attention right now, Is it helpful? Is it productive? You know, There are times where we need to reflect on the past in order to plan ahead for the future. So that could be useful to do that. There's a lot of times when we're stuck more in unhelpful ruminations. Just playing things over and over again that we can't do anything about. That already happened. Or we of course need to plan for the future and that can be really helpful. And important, But a lot of times our mind can be in the future just thinking about things that, Worrying about things that we don't have any control over. So the invitation today is just to begin to really bring some greater awareness into noticing. And if you're motivated, You can. Kind of keep a little you know, Piece of paper in front of you and check off these, You know, In the three columns, Where your mind goes today. And I'd be really interested to hear over time practicing this exercise if it's helpful in terms of catching yourself more quickly. And being able to just then use this as an invitation to come back into this present moment. Take good care. And until next time, I wish you well.