Being In the Moment

Today at lunch with a friend, I noticed that an hour and a half had gone by before I looked to see what time it was. I had simply gotten lost in our conversation. Over the last week I have been reading Simple Genius by David Baldacci and noticed I had the same experience of losing track of time even though the book was 500 pages… longer than any book I had previously read. It moved like an adventure movie.

These kinds of "in the moment" experiences are what I am looking to have more of in my life. It's being "in flow" as Czikesentmihalyi has described in his book Flow: the psychology of optimal experience . Being in flow is definitely what makes life feel meaningful. And research has shown that people are likely to accomplish more if they feel happy. While not aware at the time of being content, or happy, the experience is none the less an example of happiness.

In the examples I've given I can't say I tried to be in the moment, rather I would say that the experiences captivated me. Does this mean that it is not possible to work on being in the moment? Absolutely not. In fact, working towards being in the moment over time is likely the reason I was able to get there effortlessly in these situations.