Originally I intended to write about what I'm about to introduce in one post, but after further thought, it seemed more effective to break it into a few parts since there's a lot I want to cover.

So here we go, part 0 of "Being Present is Life's Wonderful Present - A Prologue".

I was on facetime talking to my girlfriend when this title idea kind of just popped into my head, as she was explaining how she was having one of those days in which her mind just wouldn't stop conjuring up all this doubt, anxiety, and fear, and she just wanted it to stop. She's been living abroad on her own for the first time in her life so naturally in this new and at times uncomfortable environment the mind begins to babble. "Can I really keep going?", "I would be better off if I just went home,", "What's the point of continuing?", "I'm miserable here," etc.

Such thoughts and battling the monkey mind is something as humans we have grown accustom to, and with the global mental health crisis we are facing it would seem not being able to stay present is a massive issue for many on this planet and only seems to be getting worse. And I myself have gone through phases of life where the monkey mind was constantly yapping and just would not leave me alone, to an extent where my everyday life was being debilitated to a point where I went to see a psychiatrist and I contemplated whether or not to keep living.

But thing is, seeing a psychiatrist, listening to so called health professionals, talking to friends and family, trying whatever professional protocols that are regularly prescribed, would temporarily help, but I wasn't getting to the root of the problem.

Then what exactly is the root of this problem of not being able to consistently stay present, and of having a constantly negatively driven mind that just won't shut up no matter what you try or what healthcare professional you talk to or what drug you take (prescription or recreational or even illegal for some)? In my experience, I realized that the root of the problem was the simple fact that my health was far from optimal and my energy levels were constantly low.

I like to use the analogy of a battery. Based off my experience, I came to the understanding that whenever my internal battery began to get low, the louder my mind would start yapping away negative thoughts. For simplicity's sake, just imagine your internal battery has three levels, green being full of energy, yellow being moderate energy, and red being low energy. When your battery is full and in the green, you feel great, it's those days when you wake up and you know you're just full of energy and ready to take on the day, and on such days where you are full of energy and feeling on top of the world, it is near impossible to hear any negativity coming from your mind, and you are much more likely to be present, not regretting the past, and not worrying about the future. Then we move down to yellow. When your battery is in the yellow, you still have enough energy to expend on whatever tasks you may have lined up, and can still function decently, but now life is feeling just a bit more arduous and laborious compared to the blissful state you were in when you were in the green. And in yellow, the mind begins to pull you out of the present, it starts whispering it's worries, anxieties, doubts, and fears to you, nothing overwhelming yet but it's reminding you that it's there. Finally we enter the red zone, low battery, low energy. When you are low in energy what do you want to do? Nothing, you just want to stay in bed and not move a muscle. You try and get yourself up and going but the mind quickly shuts that terrible idea down. You have no energy, you're depressed and down, and the mind now is just uncontrollably spewing out all this negativity.

Through this "Being Present is Life's Wonderful Present" series I aim to share how I ultimately recharged my battery to green and went beyond that and increased the overall capacity of my battery to allow more energy into it, and in doing so am living far more in the present than I ever have and rarely deal with negative thoughts and even when they occasionally pop up I'm much better equipped to handle them with grace. My intentions are to share certain ideas, tools, and techniques that have helped me get a grip on life and to show fellow stackers that a negative mind can in fact be controlled and quieted, and that it does not have to be accepted as something that is just an ever present, parasitic part of life.

Next up, Part 1 - Your Mind is Not Your Enemy But Actually Your Best Friend