Do you know when you're in 'the Moment'?

Do you understand 'the Moment'? I mean, do you know what being 'in the Moment' means?

Musicians, surgeons and soldiers on the battlefield are a select group of people because, when they're really called upon to perform, when the heat is on, when the situation is critical, these people slip into that thing known as 'the Moment'. It isn't that other people cannot experience the moment; they do.

Here's an example...

Anyone who has ever been in an auto accident (or equivalent situation) has probably experienced living 'in the Moment'. Their perceptions heighten, their attention is focused to a razor's edge, and they are fully, consciously aware of everything in front of them. And time seems to have slowed down.

Time doesn't actually slow down. What happens is this: You are no longer thinking about yesterday, this morning, an hour ago, even a few seconds ago. And you are no longer thinking about next week, tomorrow, later today, an hour from now. You are fully engaged with all your senses and attention in the here and now, i.e. 'the Moment'.

Yes, this is a time of extreme duress, and a knowing that you might suffer, even be at the end of your life.

The soldier on the battlefield experiences this in every moment of an engagement, or when that 'feeling' of something not quite right kicks in.

The surgeon experiences this in every operation, and even moreso the more critical the procedure they are doing becomes.

A musician experiences this in two situations: writing and on stage. There may be other instances, perhaps at the moment of hearing their song on the radio for the first time, that first really big concert, signing a record contract, the moment a really successful band breaks up.

I cannot speak for the surgeon or the soldier beyond what I have just said. But I can speak to the musicians beyond this.

For most of us, it happens unexpectedly, like a car accident, and we are not in control of when and where it happens. It just happens and we don't know why or how. And we don't really 'know' what's happening, but we like it because our senses are so heightened and our attention is so clear and focused and we seem to be in complete control during these moments.

Musicians may casually think about trying to recapture these kinds of events, but really have no sense about them, and so tend to just accept the experience as a really cool 'gift' and then simply hope it happens again.

But I'm telling you that you can increase the opportunity, the frequency in which these moments occur. In many ways, it is up to you to 'make' them happen.

The goal - at least for me - is to try to capture that experience, to actually step into it on purpose, even expand the duration and frequency of these occurrances. It should be the goal for everyone, not just musicians.

But how do you do that?

First, let me say what you don't need to do is learn to meditate or practice any brand of Eastern philosophical or religious discipline to increase the potential and frequency of those 'in the Moment' experiences. While some people will tell you this is the way to achieve that 'enlightened' condition, it is a false assertion. Sorry to all you practitioners of Eastern thought, but the truth is the truth. You don't need the "Eastern" meditative experience or discipline in order to capture and experience living 'in the Moment'.

What you do have to do is remove the 'clutter' from your life.

The 'clutter' of which I speak is the nonsense, the distractions, the things that pull you away from focusing and concentrating on what you are doing, your awareness of your surroundings. The 'clutter' keeps you from embracing the here and now of your life.

Life today can be so fast paced and hectic that we just get caught up, like jumping into a fast moving river; it's useless to try to fight the current. So we tend to simply 'go with the flow'. Doing so can cause even more distractions from the important things in life. We often have so much going on that we have no time left for anything else. So our precious time is frittered away with things that seemed to be important at the time, but which we regret wasting upon reflection later.

We all have those moments in which we wander to a past time, wishing we could recapture that time and place, even that feeling. The happenstance came and went and we just kind of walked through the experience without truly appreciating what was happening at the time it was occurring. And we become filled with regret and guilt because we missed it. Well, why live in the past, or the future, when the present has plenty to occupy your attention.

And as a creative person, it is the process that matters as much as anything else.

I just wrote a song this past weekend. It started as an exercise in just playing another song entirely. Within five minutes I was already knee deep in the creative process of the new tune. Within two hours the song was written. During that two hours, I was fully aware and conscious of what I was doing. Afterward, I reflected on the process of birthing the new tune. I really was 'in the Moment'. Everything had a quality beyond the norm. I was simply allowing the process to envelop me and not impede or try to 'control' anything. I just responded and wrote, and played, writing down each element as it occurred.

This prescience is so critical to good writing and good performance. The illusory experience of what I call 'time dilation', the perception that time is slowing down, becomes an opportunity to really explore the present, the now, the moment of engagement. Whatever you are doing takes on a different kind of 'weight' than normal. It becomes hyper-real, if I can say that.

You can 'see' the time between beats in the tempo as great chasms of space, which allows you to embrace them or fill them in a way you would not otherwise think possible.

When these moments happen on stage for me, and time expands (the dilation effect), I find I am able to play with more clarity, better note choices and with more feeling, pouring more emotion into each note. Words can fail in trying to describe this. But anyone who has experienced this knows exactly what I'm talking about.

And the most satisfying element of this is that it happens without artificial aids.

You all know my stance on drugs. It's no secret I believe they are a destructive force and work against the creative process. And in this belief, and by my own experiences in the past, you will never experience a true 'in the Moment' moment. You may experience something that is kind of like it, and I have myself, but it isn't the same because the drugs change the experience in a way that you cannot benefit. Trust me on this.

The best encouragement I can give you on this that will help you increase the potential and frequency of these events is to stop being in such a hurry to be or get wherever it is you're bound. I mean this in a 'life' direction and goal context. The journey we are on in life must be experienced first hand, not casually and in a 'just passing through' sense or attitude. So behaving ensures you will miss so much.

The artist must draw from experience. If the experiences are shallow affairs, casually engaged, the produce of the creative process will likewise be hollow and trite, even jejune, which is to say, rehashed and typical, ordinary.

Just as a true artist strives for real and honest expression that is anything but typical, rehashed and ordinary, striving to live 'in the Moment', even achieving that state will absolutely guarantee some seriously original experiences upon which you can draw and so create some truly original work that will get noticed.

It doesn't matter how young you are. It doesn't matter how old you are.

What matters is that you not miss today and the wealth of experience it holds for you to embrace.