So last week I made a resolution that I would work on making the present my default mode. I want to get out of the normal default network of mind trawling around in the future and the past, cultivating a buzzing host of anxieties about the future and a dark chaotic maze of resentments, shames and guilts from the past. I want to keep my mind as much as reasonably possible in the fresh air and vitality of the present moment.
This has been especially hard last week because I have taken advantage of an opportunity to do something I've been wanting to try out for a long time. I'm going to be teaching coding to fifth grade students and their teachers and I'm going to be learning first hand about the challenges of bringing programming literacy into the classroom. My enthusiasm from this now has me constantly wrapped up in the future building expectations and anxieties about public speaking, how much time this will take from my book and other plans, etc.
The house is a mess, I'm less focussed on Ben, and then I find myself anxious about that.
So today I decided that I would try and make this Sunday and every Sunday a day of presence. A day when I'm largely focussed on simple tasks and pleasure that can be done with the maximum amount of presence. My reading will be largely devoted to spiritual and contemplative texts. There will be many standing and breathing practices.
If I've committed myself to presence as the mode in which I do all of my activities on this day, then I will become naturally more conscious of Default Mode Network (DMN, or Damn DMN, which I've decided to now call it.) My hope is that this will carry forward into the next week.
