Living in the moment

Living in the Moment & Awakening to Experience

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed. School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica Monday, May 2, 2016 Post 264

“Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When you’re mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience” (What is Mindfulness?, 1994-2016). Having understood the extension of mindfulness, how often do you contemplate yourself at work without judging your thoughts and feelings? Very Often? Do you judge the others, too?

You are bound to find yourself answering this question in many different ways depending on the moment the above question is asked and answer. As a teaching professional, I oftentimes ask myself if I am living in the moment and awakening to

experience while teaching a class, lecturing, and designing learning tasks for my students. Though I must confess that I often get off track from mindfulness, I have had

my experiences also attending meetings at both of my workplaces, or even when I have virtual meetings with faculty members from other universities.

My very last moment of mindfulness as a teaching professional in ELT was a few days ago when taking part of a meeting. Though several thoughtful suggestions were presented to the person in charge of our meeting, they were not really considered. I felt rather ignored in various moments of the meeting, and then I told myself: “Live in the moment and awake to experience.” By doing so, I began to rearrange my priorities in that very moment; as Markway (2014) posits, “what is trivial emerges as such, and can be ignored.” And that was exactly what magically happened; mindfully speaking, knowing that I was not meant to be heard, the whole event became trivial and then ignoring the whole incident was what took place and began to contemplate myself from afar and how the other participants interacted.

At that very moment I experienced what Markway (2014) calls “a sense of liberation.” When becoming fully mindful of what was going on in my surroundings, I was “able to choose not to do those things [I] do not wish to do” (Markway, 2014). I guess most of us teachers, who tend to be the center of our explanations while lecturing or showing how something is done, feel when others are not attentive to what one is trying to say. It was in this exact point where I decided not to feel hatred or anger; I decided that I was going to ignore the triviality of the moment to simply contemplate the participants from a prudent distance to understand that decisions were made by others and that I had no participation whatsoever.

Though the last statement may sound like I gave no value to what was happening, it was an incredible epiphany for me, but not for the others, especially for the authoritative speaker. This became, at least for me, a moment to understand that there must be “fewer interpersonal fears” and “less concern about rejection,” as also stated by Dr. Markway (2014). That is, I decide not to judge myself from external standards, especially those that are imposed by figures in power positions; I decide to

open myself to “greater willingness to take risks than before the crisis” (Markway, 2014) I was now confronting. I came to the realization that it was simply trivial to take part of a one-way conversation when there was no chance to be heard nor to have one’s ideas discussed. “If I know this was the last day on earth, would I choose to spend it worrying about this? (Markway, 2014); no way!!

I have a great conviction that living in the moment and awakening to experience is the way to bear the “bitter” moments we get to experience in our teaching, professional lives. I am more than convinced that I will never be a person who will ever suffer from athazagoraphobia, that irrational “fear of being forgotten or ignored” by those who are in power positions. Life is not meant to be lived to honor these narcissistic personalities who are not mindful of their surroundings and who are the ones that can be labeled as athazagoraphobic. Being mindful of what I have just written helps me see that I need to continue contemplating life to really achieve a sense of complete liberation with “fewer interpersonal fears” and “less concern about rejection” because, professionally, one is appreciated by many and, personally, one is loved by many as well.