🕷️ Crawler Inspector

URL Lookup

Direct Parameter Lookup

Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 180 (from laksa111)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa180.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical, ml_categories_json AS ml_categories_json, ml_types_json AS ml_types_json, ml_intent_types_json AS ml_intent_types_json, meta_language AS meta_language, attrs_author AS attrs_author, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(attrs_publish_time), 0) AS attrs_publish_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(attrs_original_publish_time), 0) AS attrs_original_publish_time, ifNull(attrs_is_republished, 0) AS attrs_is_republished, ifNull(attrs_nr_words, 0) AS attrs_nr_words, ifNull(attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words, 0) AS attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words, ifNull(body_ext_links_number, 0) AS body_ext_links_number, ifNull(body_int_links_number, 0) AS body_int_links_number, ifNull(meta_nofollow, 0) AS meta_nofollow, ifNull(meta_noarchive, 0) AS meta_noarchive, ifNull(props_was_rendered, 0) AS props_was_rendered, ifNull(src_redirect, \'\') AS src_redirect, ifNull(download_time_msec, 0) AS download_time_msec, ifNull(download_ttfb_msec, 0) AS download_ttfb_msec, ifNull(download_size, 0) AS download_size FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://stanfordmag.org/contents/how-to-be-present\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://stanfordmag.org/contents/how-to-be-present\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contents\/how-to-be-present","crawl_time":1776040816,"first_indexed_time":1574564189,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"org,stanfordmag!\/contents\/how-to-be-present s443","src_root_hash":"2185107369381838780","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"How to Be Present | STANFORD magazine","meta_descriptions":["And what that even means."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"On any given day, social media is full of suggestions for self-care, with images of twisty yoga poses, perfectly charred vegetables and the ever-present advice—in colorful calligraphy, no less—to “just be in the moment.”\nWhat does it even mean to be present or “in the moment,” and why should we aspire to live this way? Neuroscience may have an answer. Stanford research shows that we have evolved to allow our minds to wander—to plan for the future or to learn from the past—because it provides insights that can prove advantageous for survival. But despite the occasional rewards of letting our thoughts go where they may, constantly flitting from activity to activity (or from task to worry) can also lead to stress and exhaustion.\nEmma Seppälä, science director at Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, expresses two of our desires: “We seek to balance the frenzy of our current pace of life with the complete opposite: sitting still. We need to fulfill an unmet need for more calmness, quietude and peace of mind.”\nIt turns out that if we foster that sense of calm, it’s not just our happiness that may increase—our focus can, too. Stanford lecturer Jonah Willihnganz is a co-founder of the LifeWorks Program for Integrative Learning at Stanford. LifeWorks offers courses that give students tools from mindfulness traditions and the fields of psychology and education in order to foster a sense of meaning and balance in their lives. Willihnganz draws his advice from those areas as well as from his training in Buddhism. “After you’ve withdrawn your attention from the past and future and brought yourself into the physical, mental, emotional awareness of where you are, then you use the present moment to focus on something,” he says. We asked him how to do that.\nHave a regular time to notice where your mind is.\nBefore you can begin to draw yourself into the present, you have to be able to recognize when your mind has wandered to the future or the past. That can mean different things to different people, says Willihnganz: “It absolutely depends—your age, your gender can make a difference, not to mention your cultural background. And [people's] nervous systems are so different.”\nStill, some common physical indicators can point to where our minds are. “One thing I’ve been trained to do is, when I walk through a doorway, to reinitiate and be in the present moment. I’m just walking into the room. That’s it,” he says. “And then I watch to see: Am I holding my shoulders up? Is my waist relaxed? How’s my breathing? I scan myself physically. Am I feeling anxious? Is that necessary?”\nThis provides a simple opportunity to reset. “Most of us don’t even think when we walk into a room what our purpose is; we’re just going through our day,” Willihnganz says. So he asks himself how he can engage in that moment and in that room.\nUse physical markers to remind yourself to return to the present.\nBringing attention to your physical state while crossing a threshold is just one way of reminding yourself to be focus on what’s happening right now. “Most wisdom traditions in the world have devices, markers, tricks—whatever you want to call them—for balancing yourself, because just having an ‘always be present’ conviction doesn’t always work,” says Willihnganz. For example, he says, Christianity uses prayer; Buddhist traditions use bells.\nAnything you do regularly, you can turn into a cue, Willihnganz says. “Remind yourself to bring yourself into the present moment without beating yourself up if you don’t.” If the doorway reminder isn’t for you, you can take a moment to set your mind to the present when you pick up your phone. “Some students I have now, the minute they pull it out to look at it, that’s the flag,” he says. “The act of looking at your phone should tell you turn it over, take a breath, withdraw yourself from the past and future, scan yourself, then ask yourself if there’s a purpose to the moment you’re in now.”\nTry out different types of meditation.\nMeditation isn’t the be-all and end-all of being present—in fact, Willihnganz says, there are many ways of finding calm. “For some people, the way to be present is to be active—for them to be in motion and have their energy circulating is a way for them to be calm, actually. And then for other people, like me, calm comes from having less stimuli going on around us.”\nIf you’ve already tried one type of meditation and think it doesn’t work for you, Willihnganz suggests considering the wide range of options out there.\nMetta meditation is wishing good things for yourself, for those close to you and for those you don’t even know. “So you’re wishing, you’re extending compassion and beneficence for all sentient beings, but you’re starting with yourself, which can be very emotional, because most of us are in subtle ways attacking ourselves all the time,” Willihnganz says.\nMara meditation is identifying the bully inside yourself and then letting go of what it says. “Give it a personality, give it a cartoon character, like make it look like something,” Willihnganz says. “You’re not trying to suppress it, and it’ll get to have its say, and you can say ‘OK, tell me all the things you think—[and] now you’re done.’”\nAnd meditation isn’t just a specific time to be in the moment. Practicing that state of mind can help you more easily access it at other times throughout your day.\nPractice with others.\nFinding others who are also working on being present more often can make it easier to commit to a practice—be it meditating or simply agreeing to all “reset” as you sit down to dinner. It can also create a more conducive space for centering the mind, since you’re all trying to do the same thing.\nFor those in the Stanford area, Willihnganz recommends Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, which offers a number of informal gatherings and meditation sessions. “It’s worth going and sitting with groups of people and seeing what that feels like,” he says. “For some people, it can be very powerful, like any event that makes you feel centered.”\nMelina Walling\n, ’20,\n is an intern for S\ntanford\n.","attrs_markdown":"[![](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/tailwind\/alumni-logo-ccd2876ccb76125286bf75d59645d5d7.png)](https:\/\/alumni.stanford.edu\/)\n\n[![STANFORD magazine logo](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/StanfordMagazineDigitalLogo-Blk-Red-RGB-b9343de6ab2800ab825b5907a1c3dfe4.svg)](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/)\n\n[Latest](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/latest) [Features](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/features) [Essays](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/essays) [Advice](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/advice)\n\nCollections\n\n- [University Ave.](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/university-ave)\n- [Students](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/students)\n- [Resolutions](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/resolutions)\n- [After the Farm](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/off-the-farm)\n- [Recent Grads](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/recent-grads)\n- [The Stanfords](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/the-stanfords)\n- [Work](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/work)\n- [Books](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/books)\n\nMagazine\n\n- [Current Issue](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/magazine)\n- [Past Issues](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/issues)\n- [Audio Articles](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/sections\/audio-articles)\n- [Online Exclusives](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/sections\/online-exclusives)\n- [Class Notes](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/class_notes)\n\n[Contact](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contact)  [Search ![](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/tailwind\/mag_glass-337b36ab9737e1c1408a3219be7ce2ca.png)](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contents\/how-to-be-present)\n\n[![](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/tailwind\/alumni-logo-ccd2876ccb76125286bf75d59645d5d7.png)](https:\/\/alumni.stanford.edu\/)\n\n[![STANFORD magazine logo](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/StanfordMagazineDigitalLogo-Blk-Red-RGB-b9343de6ab2800ab825b5907a1c3dfe4.svg)](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/)\n\n![](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/tailwind\/ham-menu-c6af6ca8ae4e3c596628b8b5c5abbfae.png) Menu\n\nClose\n\n## Hello, what can we help you find today?\n### Consider browsing by category:\n- [Arts\/Media](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/search?categories=Arts\/Media)\n- [Athletics](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/search?categories=Athletics)\n- [Engineering\/Technology](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/search?categories=Engineering\/Technology)\n- [Environment\/Sustainability](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/search?categories=Environment\/Sustainability)\n- [Health\/Wellness](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/search?categories=Health\/Wellness)\n\n- [Historical](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/search?categories=Historical)\n- [Medicine](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/search?categories=Medicine)\n- [Science](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/search?categories=Science)\n- [Student Life](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/search?categories=Student%20Life)\n- [The University](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/search?categories=The%20University)\n\nADVICE\n\n# How to Be Present\n#### And what that even means.\nNovember 22, 2019\n\nReading time 6 min\n\n![How to Be Present](https:\/\/project-orion-production.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/content\/21415\/HowToBePresent_MainImage.jpg)\n\nPhoto: Getty Images\/Caiaimage\/Tom Merton\n\nBy Melina Walling\n\nOn any given day, social media is full of suggestions for self-care, with images of twisty yoga poses, perfectly charred vegetables and the ever-present advice—in colorful calligraphy, no less—to “just be in the moment.”\n\nWhat does it even mean to be present or “in the moment,” and why should we aspire to live this way? Neuroscience may have an answer. Stanford research shows that we have evolved to allow our minds to wander—to plan for the future or to learn from the past—because it provides insights that can prove advantageous for survival. But despite the occasional rewards of letting our thoughts go where they may, constantly flitting from activity to activity (or from task to worry) can also lead to stress and exhaustion.\n\nEmma Seppälä, science director at Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, expresses two of our desires: “We seek to balance the frenzy of our current pace of life with the complete opposite: sitting still. We need to fulfill an unmet need for more calmness, quietude and peace of mind.”\n\nIt turns out that if we foster that sense of calm, it’s not just our happiness that may increase—our focus can, too. Stanford lecturer Jonah Willihnganz is a co-founder of the LifeWorks Program for Integrative Learning at Stanford. LifeWorks offers courses that give students tools from mindfulness traditions and the fields of psychology and education in order to foster a sense of meaning and balance in their lives. Willihnganz draws his advice from those areas as well as from his training in Buddhism. “After you’ve withdrawn your attention from the past and future and brought yourself into the physical, mental, emotional awareness of where you are, then you use the present moment to focus on something,” he says. We asked him how to do that.\n\n### Have a regular time to notice where your mind is.\nBefore you can begin to draw yourself into the present, you have to be able to recognize when your mind has wandered to the future or the past. That can mean different things to different people, says Willihnganz: “It absolutely depends—your age, your gender can make a difference, not to mention your cultural background. And \\[people's\\] nervous systems are so different.”\n\nStill, some common physical indicators can point to where our minds are. “One thing I’ve been trained to do is, when I walk through a doorway, to reinitiate and be in the present moment. I’m just walking into the room. That’s it,” he says. “And then I watch to see: Am I holding my shoulders up? Is my waist relaxed? How’s my breathing? I scan myself physically. Am I feeling anxious? Is that necessary?”\n\nThis provides a simple opportunity to reset. “Most of us don’t even think when we walk into a room what our purpose is; we’re just going through our day,” Willihnganz says. So he asks himself how he can engage in that moment and in that room.\n\n### Use physical markers to remind yourself to return to the present.\nBringing attention to your physical state while crossing a threshold is just one way of reminding yourself to be focus on what’s happening right now. “Most wisdom traditions in the world have devices, markers, tricks—whatever you want to call them—for balancing yourself, because just having an ‘always be present’ conviction doesn’t always work,” says Willihnganz. For example, he says, Christianity uses prayer; Buddhist traditions use bells.\n\nAnything you do regularly, you can turn into a cue, Willihnganz says. “Remind yourself to bring yourself into the present moment without beating yourself up if you don’t.” If the doorway reminder isn’t for you, you can take a moment to set your mind to the present when you pick up your phone. “Some students I have now, the minute they pull it out to look at it, that’s the flag,” he says. “The act of looking at your phone should tell you turn it over, take a breath, withdraw yourself from the past and future, scan yourself, then ask yourself if there’s a purpose to the moment you’re in now.”\n\n### Try out different types of meditation.\nMeditation isn’t the be-all and end-all of being present—in fact, Willihnganz says, there are many ways of finding calm. “For some people, the way to be present is to be active—for them to be in motion and have their energy circulating is a way for them to be calm, actually. And then for other people, like me, calm comes from having less stimuli going on around us.”\n\nIf you’ve already tried one type of meditation and think it doesn’t work for you, Willihnganz suggests considering the wide range of options out there.\n\nMetta meditation is wishing good things for yourself, for those close to you and for those you don’t even know. “So you’re wishing, you’re extending compassion and beneficence for all sentient beings, but you’re starting with yourself, which can be very emotional, because most of us are in subtle ways attacking ourselves all the time,” Willihnganz says.\n\nMara meditation is identifying the bully inside yourself and then letting go of what it says. “Give it a personality, give it a cartoon character, like make it look like something,” Willihnganz says. “You’re not trying to suppress it, and it’ll get to have its say, and you can say ‘OK, tell me all the things you think—\\[and\\] now you’re done.’”\n\nAnd meditation isn’t just a specific time to be in the moment. Practicing that state of mind can help you more easily access it at other times throughout your day.\n\n### Practice with others.\nFinding others who are also working on being present more often can make it easier to commit to a practice—be it meditating or simply agreeing to all “reset” as you sit down to dinner. It can also create a more conducive space for centering the mind, since you’re all trying to do the same thing.\n\nFor those in the Stanford area, Willihnganz recommends Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, which offers a number of informal gatherings and meditation sessions. “It’s worth going and sitting with groups of people and seeing what that feels like,” he says. “For some people, it can be very powerful, like any event that makes you feel centered.”\n***\n**Melina Walling**, ’20, *is an intern for Stanford.*\n\nRelated Categories\n\n[Advice & Insights](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/search?categories=Advice+%26+Insights)\n\n### Trending Stories\n1. [The Mystery of the MingKwai](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contents\/the-mystery-of-the-mingkwai)\n   Engineering\/Technology\n2. [Power Transfer](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contents\/power-transfer)\n   Athletics\n3. [Obituaries - Winter 2026](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contents\/obituaries-winter-2026)\n4. [The Playmaker](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contents\/the-playmaker)\n   Athletics\n5. [Pressing Pause](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contents\/pressing-pause)\n   Alumni Community\n\n### You May Also Like\nAdvice\n\n[How to Cope with the News](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contents\/how-to-cope-with-the-news)\n\nBeating back stress when tuning out doesn’t feel like an option.\n\nAll Right Now\n\n[Your Wisdom in Five Words](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contents\/lifehacks)\n\nWe asked. You came through.\n\nAdvice\n\n[Seven Tips for Making Friends After College](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contents\/seven-tips-for-making-friends-after-college)\n\nHere’s how seven alums built their social networks after leaving the Farm.\n\n[![](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/tailwind\/logo-white-4fb124b10603c3fab79c77ce201fd4d7.png)](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/)\n\n[![](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/tailwind\/alumni-logo-ccd2876ccb76125286bf75d59645d5d7.png)](https:\/\/alumni.stanford.edu\/)\n\n#### Stanford Alumni Association\nFrances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center   \n 326 Galvez Street   \n Stanford, CA 94305-6105  [Map ![](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/tailwind\/right-icon-16f40b9ed8d129585c17c2d8aceef0ed.png)](https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/place\/Frances%20C.%20Arrillaga%20Alumni%20Center\/@37.430725,-122.1648,15z\/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x778a60994d7a5e4c!8m2!3d37.430725!4d-122.1648?shorturl=1)\n\n[Find an alum ![](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/tailwind\/right-icon-16f40b9ed8d129585c17c2d8aceef0ed.png)](https:\/\/cardinalalumni.stanford.edu\/get\/page\/directory\/search?pgOrg=saa) [Check your alumni email ![](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/tailwind\/right-icon-16f40b9ed8d129585c17c2d8aceef0ed.png)](https:\/\/cardinalalumni.stanford.edu\/tools\/mail?level=12&groupname=saa&pgOrg=saa&dbc=y) [Access SAA Member Card ![](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/tailwind\/right-icon-16f40b9ed8d129585c17c2d8aceef0ed.png)](https:\/\/cardinalalumni.stanford.edu\/get\/page\/membership\/saacard) [Request official transcript ![](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/tailwind\/right-icon-16f40b9ed8d129585c17c2d8aceef0ed.png)](https:\/\/studentservices.stanford.edu\/my-academics\/request-transcripts-certifications\/transcripts-alumni) [Giving to Stanford ![](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/tailwind\/right-icon-16f40b9ed8d129585c17c2d8aceef0ed.png)](https:\/\/giving.stanford.edu\/)\n\n#### Sections\n- [Latest](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/latest)\n- [Features](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/features)\n- [Essays](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/essays)\n- [Advice](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/advice)\n- [Current Issue](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/magazine)\n- [Past Issues](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/issues)\n- [Class Notes](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/class_notes)\n\n#### Collections\n- [University Ave.](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/university-ave)\n- [Students](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/students)\n- [Resolutions](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/resolutions)\n- [After the Farm](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/off-the-farm)\n- [Recent Grads](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/recent-grads)\n- [The Stanfords](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/the-stanfords)\n- [Work](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/work)\n- [Books](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/collections\/books)\n\n#### Get in touch\n- [Contact](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contact)\n- [Letters to the Editor](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/letter)\n- [Submit an Obituary](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/obituary)\n- [Advertise](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/contact#mediakit)\n- [FAQs](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/faq)\n\n- [Accessibility](https:\/\/alumni.stanford.edu\/accessibility\/)\n- [Privacy Policy](https:\/\/alumni.stanford.edu\/get\/page\/privacy)\n- [Terms of Use](https:\/\/alumni.stanford.edu\/get\/page\/terms)\n- [Code of Conduct](https:\/\/alumni.stanford.edu\/code-of-conduct\/)\n\n[![](https:\/\/stanfordmag.org\/packs\/media\/images\/tailwind\/logo-university-1ada292c48d82a4d6d896185bfbffcb0.png)](https:\/\/www.stanford.edu\/)\n\n- [Stanford Home](https:\/\/www.stanford.edu\/ \"Stanford University homepage\")\n- [Maps & Directions](https:\/\/visit.stanford.edu\/plan\/ \"Stanford University maps and directions\")\n- [Search Stanford](https:\/\/www.stanford.edu\/search\/ \"Search Stanford University website\")\n- [Emergency Info](https:\/\/emergency.stanford.edu\/ \"Stanford University emergency information\")\n\n- [Terms of Use](https:\/\/www.stanford.edu\/site\/terms\/ \"Terms of use for sites\")\n- [Privacy](https:\/\/www.stanford.edu\/site\/privacy\/ \"Privacy and cookie policy\")\n- [Copyright](https:\/\/uit.stanford.edu\/security\/copyright-infringement \"Report alleged copyright infringement\")\n- [Trademarks](https:\/\/adminguide.stanford.edu\/chapter-1\/subchapter-5\/policy-1-5-4 \"Ownership and use of Stanford trademarks and images\")\n- [Non-Discrimination](https:\/\/non-discrimination.stanford.edu\/ \"Non-discrimination policy\")\n- [Accessibility](https:\/\/www.stanford.edu\/site\/accessibility \"Report web accessibility issues\")\n\n- [Terms of Use](https:\/\/www.stanford.edu\/site\/terms\/ \"Terms of use for sites\")\n- [Privacy](https:\/\/www.stanford.edu\/site\/privacy\/ \"Privacy and cookie policy\")\n- [Copyright](https:\/\/uit.stanford.edu\/security\/copyright-infringement \"Report alleged copyright infringement\")\n- [Trademarks](https:\/\/adminguide.stanford.edu\/chapter-1\/subchapter-5\/policy-1-5-4 \"Ownership and use of Stanford trademarks and images\")\n- [Non-Discrimination](https:\/\/non-discrimination.stanford.edu\/ \"Non-discrimination policy\")\n- [Accessibility](https:\/\/www.stanford.edu\/site\/accessibility \"Report web accessibility issues\")\n\n© Stanford University.  Stanford, California 94305.","attrs_readable_markdown":null,"meta_canonical":null,"ml_categories_json":"{\"\/People_and_Society\":739,\"\/People_and_Society\/Self-Help_and_Motivational\":679,\"\/Health\":255,\"\/Health\/Mental_Health\":250,\"\/Health\/Mental_Health\/Anxiety_and_Stress\":197}","ml_types_json":"{\"\/Article\":990,\"\/Article\/How_to\":742}","ml_intent_types_json":"{\"Informational\":999}","meta_language":"en","attrs_author":null,"attrs_publish_time":1574380800,"attrs_original_publish_time":1574380800,"attrs_is_republished":0,"attrs_nr_words":"1364","attrs_boilerpipe_nr_words":"1051","body_ext_links_number":34,"body_int_links_number":43,"meta_nofollow":0,"meta_noarchive":0,"props_was_rendered":1,"src_redirect":"","download_time_msec":234,"download_ttfb_msec":218,"download_size":24432}

3. Robots.txt Check

Query:

Response:

4. Spam/Ban Check

Query:

Response:

5. Seen Status Check

ℹ️ Skipped - page is already crawled

📄

INDEXABLE

✅

CRAWLED

9 days ago

🤖

ROBOTS ALLOWED

Page Info Filters

Filter	Status	Condition	Details
HTTP status	PASS	`download_http_code = 200`	HTTP 200
Age cutoff	PASS	`download_stamp > now() - 6 MONTH`	0.3 months ago
History drop	PASS	`isNull(history_drop_reason)`	No drop reason
Spam/ban	PASS	`fh_dont_index != 1 AND ml_spam_score = 0`	ml_spam_score=0
Canonical	PASS	`meta_canonical IS NULL OR = '' OR = src_unparsed`	Not set

Page Details

Property

Value

URL

https://stanfordmag.org/contents/how-to-be-present

Last Crawled

2026-04-13 00:40:16 (9 days ago)

First Indexed

2019-11-24 02:56:29 (6 years ago)

HTTP Status Code

200

Content

Meta Title

How to Be Present | STANFORD magazine

Meta Description

And what that even means.

Meta Canonical

null

Boilerpipe Text

On any given day, social media is full of suggestions for self-care, with images of twisty yoga poses, perfectly charred vegetables and the ever-present advice—in colorful calligraphy, no less—to “just be in the moment.” What does it even mean to be present or “in the moment,” and why should we aspire to live this way? Neuroscience may have an answer. Stanford research shows that we have evolved to allow our minds to wander—to plan for the future or to learn from the past—because it provides insights that can prove advantageous for survival. But despite the occasional rewards of letting our thoughts go where they may, constantly flitting from activity to activity (or from task to worry) can also lead to stress and exhaustion. Emma Seppälä, science director at Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, expresses two of our desires: “We seek to balance the frenzy of our current pace of life with the complete opposite: sitting still. We need to fulfill an unmet need for more calmness, quietude and peace of mind.” It turns out that if we foster that sense of calm, it’s not just our happiness that may increase—our focus can, too. Stanford lecturer Jonah Willihnganz is a co-founder of the LifeWorks Program for Integrative Learning at Stanford. LifeWorks offers courses that give students tools from mindfulness traditions and the fields of psychology and education in order to foster a sense of meaning and balance in their lives. Willihnganz draws his advice from those areas as well as from his training in Buddhism. “After you’ve withdrawn your attention from the past and future and brought yourself into the physical, mental, emotional awareness of where you are, then you use the present moment to focus on something,” he says. We asked him how to do that. Have a regular time to notice where your mind is. Before you can begin to draw yourself into the present, you have to be able to recognize when your mind has wandered to the future or the past. That can mean different things to different people, says Willihnganz: “It absolutely depends—your age, your gender can make a difference, not to mention your cultural background. And [people's] nervous systems are so different.” Still, some common physical indicators can point to where our minds are. “One thing I’ve been trained to do is, when I walk through a doorway, to reinitiate and be in the present moment. I’m just walking into the room. That’s it,” he says. “And then I watch to see: Am I holding my shoulders up? Is my waist relaxed? How’s my breathing? I scan myself physically. Am I feeling anxious? Is that necessary?” This provides a simple opportunity to reset. “Most of us don’t even think when we walk into a room what our purpose is; we’re just going through our day,” Willihnganz says. So he asks himself how he can engage in that moment and in that room. Use physical markers to remind yourself to return to the present. Bringing attention to your physical state while crossing a threshold is just one way of reminding yourself to be focus on what’s happening right now. “Most wisdom traditions in the world have devices, markers, tricks—whatever you want to call them—for balancing yourself, because just having an ‘always be present’ conviction doesn’t always work,” says Willihnganz. For example, he says, Christianity uses prayer; Buddhist traditions use bells. Anything you do regularly, you can turn into a cue, Willihnganz says. “Remind yourself to bring yourself into the present moment without beating yourself up if you don’t.” If the doorway reminder isn’t for you, you can take a moment to set your mind to the present when you pick up your phone. “Some students I have now, the minute they pull it out to look at it, that’s the flag,” he says. “The act of looking at your phone should tell you turn it over, take a breath, withdraw yourself from the past and future, scan yourself, then ask yourself if there’s a purpose to the moment you’re in now.” Try out different types of meditation. Meditation isn’t the be-all and end-all of being present—in fact, Willihnganz says, there are many ways of finding calm. “For some people, the way to be present is to be active—for them to be in motion and have their energy circulating is a way for them to be calm, actually. And then for other people, like me, calm comes from having less stimuli going on around us.” If you’ve already tried one type of meditation and think it doesn’t work for you, Willihnganz suggests considering the wide range of options out there. Metta meditation is wishing good things for yourself, for those close to you and for those you don’t even know. “So you’re wishing, you’re extending compassion and beneficence for all sentient beings, but you’re starting with yourself, which can be very emotional, because most of us are in subtle ways attacking ourselves all the time,” Willihnganz says. Mara meditation is identifying the bully inside yourself and then letting go of what it says. “Give it a personality, give it a cartoon character, like make it look like something,” Willihnganz says. “You’re not trying to suppress it, and it’ll get to have its say, and you can say ‘OK, tell me all the things you think—[and] now you’re done.’” And meditation isn’t just a specific time to be in the moment. Practicing that state of mind can help you more easily access it at other times throughout your day. Practice with others. Finding others who are also working on being present more often can make it easier to commit to a practice—be it meditating or simply agreeing to all “reset” as you sit down to dinner. It can also create a more conducive space for centering the mind, since you’re all trying to do the same thing. For those in the Stanford area, Willihnganz recommends Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, which offers a number of informal gatherings and meditation sessions. “It’s worth going and sitting with groups of people and seeing what that feels like,” he says. “For some people, it can be very powerful, like any event that makes you feel centered.” Melina Walling , ’20, is an intern for S tanford .

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November 22, 2019 Reading time 6 min ![How to Be Present](https://project-orion-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/content/21415/HowToBePresent_MainImage.jpg) Photo: Getty Images/Caiaimage/Tom Merton By Melina Walling On any given day, social media is full of suggestions for self-care, with images of twisty yoga poses, perfectly charred vegetables and the ever-present advice—in colorful calligraphy, no less—to “just be in the moment.” What does it even mean to be present or “in the moment,” and why should we aspire to live this way? Neuroscience may have an answer. Stanford research shows that we have evolved to allow our minds to wander—to plan for the future or to learn from the past—because it provides insights that can prove advantageous for survival. But despite the occasional rewards of letting our thoughts go where they may, constantly flitting from activity to activity (or from task to worry) can also lead to stress and exhaustion. Emma Seppälä, science director at Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, expresses two of our desires: “We seek to balance the frenzy of our current pace of life with the complete opposite: sitting still. We need to fulfill an unmet need for more calmness, quietude and peace of mind.” It turns out that if we foster that sense of calm, it’s not just our happiness that may increase—our focus can, too. Stanford lecturer Jonah Willihnganz is a co-founder of the LifeWorks Program for Integrative Learning at Stanford. LifeWorks offers courses that give students tools from mindfulness traditions and the fields of psychology and education in order to foster a sense of meaning and balance in their lives. Willihnganz draws his advice from those areas as well as from his training in Buddhism. “After you’ve withdrawn your attention from the past and future and brought yourself into the physical, mental, emotional awareness of where you are, then you use the present moment to focus on something,” he says. We asked him how to do that. ### Have a regular time to notice where your mind is. Before you can begin to draw yourself into the present, you have to be able to recognize when your mind has wandered to the future or the past. That can mean different things to different people, says Willihnganz: “It absolutely depends—your age, your gender can make a difference, not to mention your cultural background. And \[people's\] nervous systems are so different.” Still, some common physical indicators can point to where our minds are. “One thing I’ve been trained to do is, when I walk through a doorway, to reinitiate and be in the present moment. I’m just walking into the room. That’s it,” he says. “And then I watch to see: Am I holding my shoulders up? Is my waist relaxed? How’s my breathing? I scan myself physically. Am I feeling anxious? Is that necessary?” This provides a simple opportunity to reset. “Most of us don’t even think when we walk into a room what our purpose is; we’re just going through our day,” Willihnganz says. So he asks himself how he can engage in that moment and in that room. ### Use physical markers to remind yourself to return to the present. Bringing attention to your physical state while crossing a threshold is just one way of reminding yourself to be focus on what’s happening right now. “Most wisdom traditions in the world have devices, markers, tricks—whatever you want to call them—for balancing yourself, because just having an ‘always be present’ conviction doesn’t always work,” says Willihnganz. For example, he says, Christianity uses prayer; Buddhist traditions use bells. Anything you do regularly, you can turn into a cue, Willihnganz says. “Remind yourself to bring yourself into the present moment without beating yourself up if you don’t.” If the doorway reminder isn’t for you, you can take a moment to set your mind to the present when you pick up your phone. “Some students I have now, the minute they pull it out to look at it, that’s the flag,” he says. “The act of looking at your phone should tell you turn it over, take a breath, withdraw yourself from the past and future, scan yourself, then ask yourself if there’s a purpose to the moment you’re in now.” ### Try out different types of meditation. Meditation isn’t the be-all and end-all of being present—in fact, Willihnganz says, there are many ways of finding calm. “For some people, the way to be present is to be active—for them to be in motion and have their energy circulating is a way for them to be calm, actually. And then for other people, like me, calm comes from having less stimuli going on around us.” If you’ve already tried one type of meditation and think it doesn’t work for you, Willihnganz suggests considering the wide range of options out there. Metta meditation is wishing good things for yourself, for those close to you and for those you don’t even know. “So you’re wishing, you’re extending compassion and beneficence for all sentient beings, but you’re starting with yourself, which can be very emotional, because most of us are in subtle ways attacking ourselves all the time,” Willihnganz says. Mara meditation is identifying the bully inside yourself and then letting go of what it says. “Give it a personality, give it a cartoon character, like make it look like something,” Willihnganz says. “You’re not trying to suppress it, and it’ll get to have its say, and you can say ‘OK, tell me all the things you think—\[and\] now you’re done.’” And meditation isn’t just a specific time to be in the moment. Practicing that state of mind can help you more easily access it at other times throughout your day. ### Practice with others. Finding others who are also working on being present more often can make it easier to commit to a practice—be it meditating or simply agreeing to all “reset” as you sit down to dinner. It can also create a more conducive space for centering the mind, since you’re all trying to do the same thing. For those in the Stanford area, Willihnganz recommends Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, which offers a number of informal gatherings and meditation sessions. “It’s worth going and sitting with groups of people and seeing what that feels like,” he says. “For some people, it can be very powerful, like any event that makes you feel centered.” *** **Melina Walling**, ’20, *is an intern for Stanford.* Related Categories [Advice & Insights](https://stanfordmag.org/search?categories=Advice+%26+Insights) ### Trending Stories 1. [The Mystery of the MingKwai](https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-mystery-of-the-mingkwai) Engineering/Technology 2. [Power Transfer](https://stanfordmag.org/contents/power-transfer) Athletics 3. [Obituaries - Winter 2026](https://stanfordmag.org/contents/obituaries-winter-2026) 4. [The Playmaker](https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-playmaker) Athletics 5. 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