Our true home is in the present moment Thich Nhat Hanh (1992, p1)

Key Targets Help clients discover that life is happening right now, and to return to now from the conceptualized past or future Help clients make contact with the life that is happening now, whether it be filled with sorrow or happiness

Present moment living Life is always lived in the present moment, there is nothing else that can be experienced but the present moment Everything else is a picture that we have drawn based on past and future experiences Although these refer to a past or future constructed by our minds, they can be experienced in the here. This is sometimes very helpful For example, the ability to problem solve relies on being able to draw from past experience and predict future outcomes

However Problems arise because people tend to get wrapped up in the past or the future and thus lose contact with the present moment People tend to fuse with these pictures we have built (conceptualisations) and interact with them as if they were really happening or really ‘true’, thus spending little time in the now ACT suggests that we don’t need to eliminate past and future thinking as they often work very well for us, but that we need to develop the flexibility to engage in the present moment when we need to A focus on the present moment is important because it is there that new learning occurs and where opportunities afforded by the environment are discovered

ACT aims to help clients let go of the struggle with personal histories, thoughts and feelings and show up to the life that is being lived in the moment Contact with the present moment helps people step out of the world as restructured by our minds and to more directly, fully and mindfully contact the here and now

What is contact with the present moment Bringing our awareness to internal and external experiences as they occur in the moment Each experience is simply noticed as it occurs We do not cling to the experience, it rises and it falls away The idea is sit back and watch what the mind does, each time it gets caught up in a thought, gently bring the mind back to your direct experiences The goal of this process is to give people the ability to notice getting caught in their thoughts, and then experience bringing their mind back to the present moment In short, mindfulness training aims to increase our self observation and awareness skills, but also to recognise that its impossible to stay mindful all of the time With clients, we train mindfulness not so they can always be in the present moment, but so they are able to do this when it works (or when an aversive experience constricts behaviour)

Lets give a mindfulness exercise a go! The body scan exercise

What did you find? Mind kept wandering? And now lets give another one a go The walking mindfulness exercise

Why contact with the present moment? We often get invested in exploring our past so we can understand it and figure out how to eliminate those thoughts that cause us discomfort This is a principle reason for thought suppression – we look in our past and see that it has worked for us in the short term, and so engage in it again, not knowing the costs of our avoidance We also spend lots of time in our future, thinking and worrying about what will happen When we are caught up in the past and future we tend to miss some opportunities in the present moment Being in contact with present moment allows us to contact our values without the pull of the past and the future in the way

Importantly, whilst mindful, we are able to receive what occurs in life without attempts at changing the experience We know through experience that any difficult emotion that may be present in the moment can be felt and it is not destructive No-one has ever died from a painful thought! It is when we fight against a feeling that harm can occur i.e. avoidance begins

Developing mindfulness skills in therapy A number of exercises can be used to develop mindfulness skills Leaves on a stream Mindfulness of breath Clouds in the sky Body scan Walking mindfulness (generalisation of mindfulness to every day activities) Eating mindfulness The aim of each mindfulness technique is to allow the person to notice when their mind has got caught up with a thought and to bring their awareness back to the present moment Importantly, after the client becomes comfortable with general mindfulness exercises, the therapist will then progress to more exposure like mindfulness exercises in which they are asked to invite in their distressing content

The point of mindfulness is not to develop present moment awareness during the periods of the exercises themselves, but so that it is available when it is needed or helpful in everyday life As such ACT therapists will constantly weave mindfulness into their sessions when it is appropriate Importantly, contacting the present moment is an essential skill for fostering acceptance, Defusion and values work in session – the clients needs to be mindful to develop each of these other ACT processes

Lets take a look at the video