Before You Capture the Moment, Experience It!
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
Have you ever been enjoying a moment and thought:
“Wait, let me get my phone!”
I have!
Something makes us laugh.
The food arrives looking amazing.
Someone does something we want to remember.
The view is beautiful.
The children are doing something we know we will want to look back on.
And almost instinctively…
out comes the phone.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking the photo.
I love having photos to look back on.
But this weekend, I want to try something slightly different.
Before I capture the moment, I want to experience it.
Just a Few Seconds
I am not suggesting you put your phone away for the entire weekend.
I am certainly not suggesting you stop taking photographs!
I am simply wondering what might happen if, before reaching for the phone, we gave our brains a few seconds to experience what is happening first.
Pause. Notice. Take it in.
That’s it!
Pause.
Give yourself a second before reaching for the camera.
Notice.
What is actually happening?
Who is there?
What made you want to capture this particular moment?
And then…
Take it in.
Look.
Listen.
Notice how you feel.
Notice something you might otherwise have missed.
Maybe it’s someone’s expression.
The sound of the laughter.
The way the sun feels.
Something someone said.
The smell of the food.
The atmosphere around the table.
Then…
take the photo!
The difference is that this time, your camera isn’t the first thing to experience the moment.
You are!
And There Is a Brain-Health Reason for This
Our brains don’t simply record everything happening around us like cameras.
Attention matters.
What we direct our attention towards influences what information we actually take in.
And that means attention isn’t only important when we are working, concentrating, studying or trying to complete something.
Attention also helps us experience our lives.
When we deliberately stop and attend to a moment, we give our brains an opportunity to process more of what is happening.
The faces.
The sounds.
The conversation.
The feeling.
The details.
And some of that information may later contribute to what we remember about the experience.
That is why I love this little weekend practice.
It isn’t about trying harder to remember.
It is about giving our brains something worth working with in the first place.
Your Phone Can Keep the Picture. You Get to Keep the Experience.
That distinction made me think.
We can have hundreds, even thousands, of photographs stored on our phones.
But a photograph and an experience are not quite the same thing.
Sometimes I can look at a photograph and think:
I know I was there… but was I really present?
And that leads me to something I have been thinking about more and more:
Being there ≠ Being present.
Physical presence doesn’t always mean our attention arrived with us.
Our bodies can be in one place while our minds are already somewhere else.
Thinking about tomorrow.
Replaying yesterday.
Working through the next task.
Answering a message.
Planning what happens when we leave.
And perhaps we don’t always need to judge ourselves for that.
We are human.
Our minds wander.
Life requires us to think ahead.
But we can practise coming back.
This Is an Executive Function Practice Too
One of the executive functions we use here is attention.
And I like that this practice doesn’t require an app, equipment or an hour of your day.
You simply practise directing your attention deliberately.
Away from, ..."let me capture this.”
For a few seconds…towards:
“Let me experience this!”
That tiny shift is the practice.
And There Is Gratitude in This Too
Gratitude asks us to recognise what is here.
And sometimes the thing worth appreciating isn’t extraordinary at all.
It might be the people around the table.
A conversation.
A ridiculous laugh.
A quiet cup of hot water and lemon...looool.
A walk.
Someone sitting beside you.
An ordinary moment that doesn’t feel particularly important…yet.
Perhaps that is why I don’t want all of my appreciation to happen retrospectively.
I don’t want to realise the value of every moment only after it has passed.
Sometimes I want to recognise it while I am still inside it.
Your Weekend Brain Health Nugget
Sometime this weekend, when you instinctively reach for your phone to capture something, try this first:
PAUSE. NOTICE. TAKE IT IN.
Give your brain a moment to experience what is happening before you ask your phone or camera to remember it for you.
Then take the picture or record that note!
And perhaps the photograph or note will remind you of more than what the moment looked like.
Perhaps it will remind you of a moment you actually experienced.
#IChoose to experience the moment before I capture it.
No pressure to make every moment meaningful.
No pressure to be perfectly present all weekend.
Just choose one.
One moment.
A few seconds.
Arrive in it!
If You Remember One Thing…
Your phone can capture what something looked like.
But give yourself the opportunity to experience what it felt like to be there.
Before you capture the moment, experience it.
Pause. Notice. Take it in.
With Gratitude,
Your Friend and Coach,
Annabel
C3™ | Collaborative Cognitive Continuity™
Remembering. Following through. Staying connected.
Created by Annabel Aaron
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