A Mindfulness Exercise

"Being in the moment" doesn't mean avoiding thinking about the future. In fact, simple mindfulness exercises can increase your mind power and your ability to deal with the future.

Mindfulness exercises let you "tune in" to yourself. Distractions are let go, and your brain power is increased. The exercises help you think more clearly and concentrate better. The best news is that they are easier than you might think to learn.

Anytime you are stressed, stop, and carefully watch yourself to identify what's bothering you. You may be expecting something bad to happen, or perhaps there is an argument going on just below the surface of your consciousness, or you're worried about something, or in pain in some way. Notice everything you can.

This self-observation is crucial. It will get easier as you do it more. You'll start to realize just how many things are going on in your own head, distracting you.

Now deal with these mind-irritants. Make the phone call that's on your mind, take an aspirin, apologize to whomever you were fighting with. You can write things on tomorrow's to-do list, to get them off your mind. And if there's nothing you can do right now, tell yourself that. When you do this exercise, you'll feel less stressed, and more able to concentrate on the tasks at hand. You can have more brain power today.