Life passes through the present moment. The mantra in personal development is to be fully present in the moment so we do not miss out on growth experiences. Otherwise, we can be stuck in the past or always hurrying to arrive in the future.

What is meant by being fully present in the moment? Sometimes the most frequently used terms are the least understood. We are so in the habit of using them we do not stop to think what they really mean.

How can we bring reality to a notion that has been idealized as the perfect way to live when perfection is really not what life is about anyway? It is easy to describe what being fully present in the moment is not.

It is not when our minds are engaged in thoughts displaced in time and space. In other words, when we are thinking about the past or the future or even what is happening somewhere else in the present moment.

Do we disconnect from the past and future when we are fully present? Are our actions in the present not guided by values learned in the past and by consequences in the future?

That sounds like hedonism in the extreme. If it feels good, do it. Act on the attraction, whatever it might be. Why hold back? Attention to values and consequences, important ingredients in being personally responsible, would limit the pleasures of the present moment.

I was once advised by followers of a movement that "relating" to others in the  present moment was the key to a full life. Developing a meaningful relationship  ironically was seen as interfering with relating.

An enduring and meaningful relationship is based on values learned in the past, like loyalty. It also begs an awareness of consequences of our present actions on the future quality of the relationship. Without those considerations, living fully in the present is without boundaries. The word full implies a container. It has limits.

In the main stream most of us are in the same boat. We maintain a strong sense of personal responsibility that reflects our awareness of the past and future even when we are fully present.

It seems to me that being fully present is psychologically holistic. The past and the future are enfolded into the present moment. The present moment is enveloped by the past and future.

Their interdependence is also in our wiring. The mind has a background program running continually that connects past memories with present experience to set expectations for what will come next in the future. It is referred to as "nexting" by Gilbert in Stumbling on Happiness. Surprise parties are surprising because they contradict expectations of what is next.

The past and future become background when we are fully present. We devote our attention to what is happening in our immediate experience. We expand our present relative to our past and future.

I like the term "expanded present" (Zimbardo and Lloyd in the Time Paradox) in relation to living fully in the present moment. It underscores the inclusion of past and future. As we expand the present, we naturally contract the past and future and vice versa within the whole of time without disconnecting from them. Each is relative to the others.

I associate the word expansion with an increase in space. Space is a different dimension than time. If I begin to look at time from a space perspective I think it changes my psychological experience of it.

I can hang out in a space. I do not have to keep moving through it in rhythm to the seconds ticking off the clock. I can stop worrying so much about being behind time. As suggested by Briggs and Peat in The Seven Life Lessons of Chaos I can detach from time as a quantity where in our busy lives we never seem to have enough.

I can think of it as a quality and about the good time I am having in the space I occupy right now. I can also notice the relative nature of time as part of my awareness in being fully present. Does it stand still, fly or drag and how does that reflect the quality of my current experience? And how can I enrich the quality of a personal experience by being generous enough with myself to give it time?

Giving it time is giving it life. Current experiences result in images that form our memories and how the future may look. Linda Barry says in What It Is that images are vivid. They have life.

I think the present is expanded and lived fully by making it more vivid. Artists know about vividness. Their work impacts on the senses and the emotions. They create images that stir themselves and others.

Vividness requires slowing down as an act of generosity toward ourselves in order to give our experiences time, and life. As we slow, we notice. As we notice, we slow.  We can scan the space we are in, absorb it through the senses, be aware of what stirs us, linger with that for awhile, and savour it.

We can meander. A meander is a pattern of winding and intertwining lines used in art. Meandering is artistic. It is creative. I like the proverb, "A straight line is the quickest way to the wrong place." The expanded present is already the right place. There is no need to hurry.

Imagine meandering slowly through well tended gardens and forest sheltered surroundings near a beach on the ocean. You are carrying a camera with an intention to capture vividness in photographic images. This is one of the invitations that Mary, Wendy Huntington and I offered participants in our recent course on Creative aging: embracing the second half of life at The Haven on Gabriola Island.

Our invitation is to experience the expanded present and the freshness that comes with living in it. It is especially appropriate and timely as we have freedom from the demands of the first half of life and are making meaning in this time of our life.

© C O P Y R I G H T   2 0 1 0.  Gary Holdgrafer ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.