Coaching practices for Return to the Present

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Return to the Present, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• My head is almost never actually here
• I’m hardly ever actually here
• I’m almost never actually here
• My head is always somewhere other than where I am
• I keep telling myself life really starts once I get through this next thing, and meanwhile I’m either replaying something I can’t change or bracing for something that hasn’t happened

Practices that may help

1. Anchor attention to the present moment deliberately
   When the mind pulls to past regret or future worry, redirect to what is actually here.
   Psychological Flexibility, Made Practical
2. Contact with the present moment
   Bring flexible attention to here and now, instead of being lost in past or future.
   Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Made Practical
3. Entering the present moment
   Drop attention out of past and future and into direct sensory contact with now.
   The Power of Now, In Practice
4. Reclaim the present from past and future
   The busy lose the present to regret and dread; only the present is actually yours.
   Seneca on Time, Made Practical
5. Return to the present as the only moment of action
   Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus all return to the same point: you can only act now — stop deferring life.
   Philosophy as a Way of Life
6. Ground and orient to the present
   Use feet, contact, and a slow look around the room to re-anchor in the safe here-and-now.
   Somatic Experiencing, Honestly Explained
7. Do the task in front of you, fully
   Treat each present action as if it were your last, with full attention and no half-measures.
   Meditations, as Marcus Practiced It
8. Build a vivid, concrete future orientation
   Make the future feel real and close by describing it in sensory, specific detail.
   Time Perspective Therapy
9. Ground in the present when the past intrudes
   Use the senses and the room to signal "that was then, this is now" when memory floods the body.
   The Body Keeps the Score, Honestly Explained
10. Ask: how will this look in one year, five years?
    Project forward to check whether the catastrophe still looks catastrophic from a temporal distance.
    Decatastrophizing, Made Practical

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.