What's the difference between 'presence of mind' vs 'being in the moment'?
I've come to realize that presence of mind aligns with eastern religious views, where perspectives are approached bottom-up. The focus is inwards on your self, and understanding who you are before understanding your place in the world and your environment.
Being in the moment focuses more on western religious views, which is more of a top-down perspective. Focusing on your surroundings, and based on the context, grasping your role there.
Having grown up in Canada, my mind is more comfortable with the concept of being in the moment. Walking across the stage at convocation, the lights blinded me and the audience clapping sounded muted in the background. And before I knew it, my moment was over. The energy rushed through me just as quickly as it left my system.
It's strange, because I've been struggling to retain my presence of mind for a while. Growing up in a Vietnamese household, I'm more aligned to Buddhism, making me susceptible to double-consciousness due to the difference in environments between my house life and outside world life. I'm able to absorb a moment that I'm experiencing, but in turn, I lack recollection of episodic memories that tie small details together. Maybe you can say that my memory is just what's failing me, or that social media has caused attention-deficits with my continuous partial attention. But I'm finding it difficult to justify sacrificing my presence of mind for the sake of being more in the moment. Is there a way to find a medium between the two concepts, or is everyone bound to offer one for the other?
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