Mariam Gates - This Moment Is Your Life (and So Is This One): A Fun and Easy Guide to Mindfulness, Meditation, and Yoga

Imagine you are walking into your school. See it all as clearly as you can: Notice whats on the walls, feel the weight of your backpack on your shoulders, hear the sound of the bell. Who do you see? What are you looking forward to? What is uncomfortable? How do you feel?

You are learning history, math, science, English, and maybe even how to speak another language. But you dont have a class on how to handle your thoughts and feelings. There arent instructions for how to take care of yourself and manage your complicated life.

Even a normal day of school can be enough to make you feel completely overwhelmed.

Maybe you arent playing well in a game, and you get a bad grade on a project because you misunderstood the directions, and a friend seems annoyed but you dont know why.

At your age, you have a lot more responsibilities than you used to. Not that long ago, your parents made most of your plans and decisions, but now you are choosing how to spend your time and who to spend it with. You are in charge of how much energy you put into your grades, sports, theater, or whatever else is in your life. There is more to keep track of and more to worry about. Everything is competing for your attention, and that creates stress.

Stress can make you sad or angry. It can build up to the point where you want to scream or even hit something. You can feel stress in your bodyas tension in your neck and shoulders, stomachaches and headaches, shortness of breath, or tiredness. Stress can make it hard to fall asleep at night, which then makes everything even worse. When you have a lot on your mind it is difficult to stop and get some perspective.

I procrastinate a lot with my homework and then I feel like I cant even start. Every day there are more things on my to-do list and not enough of them are getting checked off. My sister and I share a room, so when Im trying to get things done I end up yelling at her over any sound she makes. When Im overwhelmed I get headaches.

Allison, age 12

Even when you arent worrying about something specific, your mind can feel busy. Your mind can feel like a monkey swinging through the jungle from tree to tree. Just when you land, your thoughts take off in another direction. With this monkey mind you never really get to rest because there is always something new to focus on. It can feel as if your thoughts are just spiraling from thing to thing with no end.

Whether youre distracted by something you are worried about or just juggling a lot at once, the results are the same. When your thoughts are going a million miles a minute, you miss out on what is happening in the only time that existsnow.

It makes sense to want to get to the next moment, the next experience. It is part of being human to always be looking for the next possibility. If you are alone, you are thinking about when youll be with your friends; if it is Sunday you are focused on how Monday is going to go. You dont let yourself be in this moment because it always feels like the important experience, event, or thing is the one coming up next.

But this is a problem. Because your life is only ever happening right here, right now.

This is the moment that exists. This is the only place you will ever be able to enjoy or experience anything.

The good news is that you can teach your mind to be in this moment happily and with ease. Learning how to be here now is the best way to manage everything that goes on in your life. If you are present, you can handle it.

What you will find is that 90 percent of the time, this moment, the one you are in right now, is just fine (and also very manageable). There may be things in the past or future that you are concerned about, but right here, right now, is okay.

Being completely present, even for a little while, can go a long way. It can help you feel more comfortable, confident, and even happy dealing with everything you experience on a regular basis.

Try It

Unplugging from Your Thoughts and Plugging into the Present

Sit up tall, and let your body relax.

Take a deep breath in, then let a long breath out.

Notice the calm here in the present.

This moment is just fine.

None of this is new information. All of the tools and techniques in this book have been used for thousands of years. People realized a long time ago that our constant rush of thoughts often makes us distracted and unhappy. We imagine worrisome outcomes for the future and we rehash unfortunate things that have already occurred. As a result, the life that is happening in this moment gets ignored. People discovered that the more we pay attention to what is happening right now, the more rational and relaxed we become.

Today, mindfulness practices are used by successful people in every field: CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, Silicon Valley innovators, teachers, professional athletes, and Oscar-winning actors and producers. There is plenty of information available about how these techniques can support you. But dont take this books word for it. Experience it for yourself!

In each chapter you will find simple techniques for using mindfulness (awareness of your internal and external environment) to let go of stress and be present. It is up to you to find out if they are helpful. It is up to you to see if they make things easier.