Be HERE, NOW.

I was at the Panama Canal the other day. Two hundred people were there too.

Except they kind of weren’t.

Sure, we all lined up, had our tickets scanned, walked up the steps, watched a ship going through the canal and were then guided towards an IMAX theatre for a Morgan Freeman-narrated documentary. Wonderful. But as we waited the five or so minutes before the lights went down and the show started, I would estimate that 180 of those 200 people had their phones out, no longer talking to the people right next to them. They were rapidly scrolling through social media, or pinching their fingers to crop their pictures of the canal to send out to the internet. It was like their bodies were at the Panama Canal, but their minds were elsewhere. Perhaps they were wondering what others in the world were up to. Or hoping for others’ approval of how great it was to be in Panama!

Similarly, on a beach in Rio a few months ago, my son Finn and I counted how many people were on their phones. Of the 100 people we quickly looked at, 70 of them were looking at their devices. Again, rather than being in the moment, on one of the most astounding beaches on earth, they were somewhere else.

This is a new phenomenon, and I mostly blame smartphones. Because twenty years ago, if you were on a beach in Rio, other than sending a postcard to someone (two weeks to arrive) or taking some photos (which you might show a small group of friends or family across the coming years), there was not much of a reason to have your mind elsewhere.

I don’t have this all worked out myself just yet. I often find myself thinking about the past rather than the now (don’t we all). Or looking ahead, rather than being present in the now. Or thinking about someplace else, rather than the place I’m in right now. This is all fine, but I’ve been realising how little time I truly spend in the HERE and the NOW. So I’ve been experimenting. Trying to be more deliberate about being in the HERE (place) and NOW (time).

Kaitlin has three little dots (…) tattooed on one of her fingers, which she says stands for Be Here Now. She’s better at it than I am.

If you want to play with it too, it’s quite easy.

Just whenever you remember to, ask yourself, am I in the HERE and NOW, or am I someplace else, in some other time?

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