Angela Haupt, a health and wellness editor at TIME, points to the simple power of being in the moment to bring our thoughts back to the present. This mindfulness practice, popularized by Harvard psychologist Dr. Ellen Langer, is often called active noticing.
For insight into the practice, Haupt talked with Arati Patel, a mindfulness-based psychotherapist in Ventura, Calif, who explained to TIME: “It’s just coming back to the present moment, and being fully there. When you’re present, you can’t really be anxious—you can’t be thinking about the future or preoccupied with things that happened in the past, or super down and in a funk. You can actually experience the joy of being in that moment.”
According to Patel, the practice of active noticing helps regulate the nervous system by signaling safety and stability to the brain. “It allows me to actually experience being here,” Patel says, “instead of projecting into the future, what’s going to happen tomorrow or even 10 years from now.”
Research shows that mindfulness practices like active noticing can reduce anxiety, strengthen emotional resilience, and improve how we respond to stress signals.
Patel recommends the following simple, consistent approach for practicing active noticing:
- Pause and take one slow breath, extending the exhale.
- Notice three things you can see, without labeling them as good or bad.
- Notice two physical sensations in your body (such as your feet on the floor or the weight of your body in a chair).
- Notice one sound, near or far.
- End with a grounding statement: “This is what’s here right now.” Or: “This is what I notice right now.”
The practice, which takes under a minute, can be paired with existing routines and done anywhere to reduce stress. “You can do it in a meeting or in the car,” says Patel. “You can actually be present driving and getting to where you need to go, instead of just being on autopilot.”
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