Presence of mind is the ability to stay calm and composed + ability to act quickly and sensibly.
Its a mixture of outer dynamism and inner peace. Its a combination of being relaxed and yet being alert and aware.
What stops us from being relaxed, alert, dynamic, peaceful, calm is stress.
Stress clogs the mind, it inhibits creativity, learnability, spontaneity. Stress demotivates by sapping us out of energy and enthusiasm. The ones mentioned in bold are the key factors in having a good presence of mind.
How to develop a good presence of mind:
Practice of Yoga, pranayama, meditation is crucial in developing outer dynamism with inner peace. These practices bring out the liveliness of the child in us, it takes us to a state of wonder - ever new and fresh. It brings out the innocence of the child + intelligence of an adult.
Wisdom, knowledge: Acquiring as much knowledge and skills and putting them into good use. Present day education is about gathering information and not developing awareness and intelligence . But the right education/ knowledge is about holistic development of individual. Wisdom in giving the training to mind to stay alert and yet stay relaxed.
Company: The people around and the environment matter a lot in developing individual intelligence.
Balancing right and left half of the brain.: Right side of the brain is creativity, music and meditation. Left is logic and analysis. Balancing brings out the best of imagination and pragmatism.
Balancing our lives with good physical activity and proper relaxation helps.
One crude E.g: As students we all have experienced this. We remain focused in examination hall but we yet we find it hard to remember things. The moment we step out of the examination hall, we remember the answers! This is became we feel relaxed the moment we come out while still being focused.
So combination of relaxation and alertness is the key in developing a good presence of mind.
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