Living in the ‘now’ is a fundamental principle of mindfulness, distilled down from an array of global traditions. Around the world, various philosophies and spiritual perspectives identify the ‘now’ as a source of contentment, harmony and a well-lived life. Yet when the world seems to be in turmoil, when does ‘living in the now’ slip into passive fatalism, and how can we avoid it?
Living in the ‘now’ is a fundamental principle of mindfulness, distilled down from an array of global traditions. Around the world, various philosophies and spiritual perspectives identify the ‘now’ as a source of contentment, harmony and a well-lived life. Yet when the world seems to be in turmoil, when does ‘living in the now’ slip into passive fatalism, and how can we avoid it?
The early 21st century has been a rapidly evolving spectacle. The rise of the internet and smart technology has revolutionised the way we work, shop, communicate and live. Our institutions, however, established over decades and even centuries of relative stability, have struggled to adapt to the challenging contemporary landscape. Workers in higher education have seen their roles subjected to increasing casualisation, working on short term contracts for low wages with little job security in a university system at the mercy of market forces. Our health care system struggles to maintain stability under the enormous pressure of an aging population and a byzantine internal/external structure.
In the face of such epochal changes, individuals can feel paralysed. The above are just two examples of the sweeping social upheaval that is taking place in developed countries such as the UK. Yet so many areas of life are feeling the conceptual strain of adapting to a newly interconnected world, with new forms of sociality, new modes of capitalism, and new demands on us as people. At a fundamental level, living in the now allows us to savour life as it happens, to revel in the moment-to-moment experience of being alive. However, it can also act as a discursive crutch, an excuse to turn away from the world with a resigned shrug, accepting that we are powerless outside of our immediate context of living.
Of course, a fatalistic attitude is no way to live in the world happily, and it is not what living in the now is really about. After all, if we give up on our hopes of achieving positive change or advocating for what we believe, are we really living, or just surviving? Truly living in the now is about participating in life, saying yes to the messy and chaotic world and finding our role within it. Becoming absorbed in a task sees our sense of self melt away, as our attention and focus is turned outwards into the world.
We are all capable of stepping into the future, of doing our part to shape it and be the driving force behind something good in the world. When we feel overwhelmed and are tempted to turn away into our little corner of existence, life continues going on outside of us. Whether we choose to meet it head on in the moment or to simply shrug and let it carry on without us is the difference between really living, and merely surviving.