in the winter of 2014
my family and I travel to Tanzania to
summit Mount Kilimanjaro the largest
freestanding mountain in the world and
the largest mountain in Africa each day
on the climb I was surrounded by
beautiful scenery whether it was in the
towering cliffs and mawenzi at the
bottom of the alpine tundra and the best
part was no Wi-Fi which meant no phones
no texts no alerts and most of all no
distractions and as my family climbed
higher and higher my appreciation for
those very surroundings and the lack of
distraction that they created grew it
was the rocks and the dunes and the
mount that drew me closer into nature
and made me feel calmer than I ever had
before in addition those very lack of
distractions allowed me to know the
sights and the sounds going on around me
and this I credit with saving my life
let me explain on summer day my family
and I rose before sunrise at 17,000 feet
and after two hours we took a break and
while we were resting we heard screams a
couple hundred feet above and as I
looked up a rock came barreling toward
me it was only later that I learned that
a climber had accidentally slipped and
caused a rock to become dislodged and as
that rock was falling toward me in the
nick of time with all my might I doubt
of the way to my right missing the rock
and merrily as it pummeled down the
mountain and as I rose up with dusty
dusty clothes and shaking with fear I
realized that I was lucky I was lucky
because I was knowing of the present
moment and aware of my surroundings
which allowed me to adapt and I was
given the opportunity to escape as that
rock came barreling toward me now ladies
and gentlemen that story was my first
introduction to living in the moment
which I see is a focused attention on
the present or than now and other names
for this concept can include mindfulness
and present moment awareness and before
I move on I just want to mention that I
personally am NOT an expert on living in
the moment nor my very proficient at it
I’m a high school junior need i say more
about my stress levels however it is
something that I care about dearly and
something that I try to achieve every
day and that allows me to escape the
stresses that occur in my life it also
allows me to appreciate it to the
fullest yes there are scholars such as
Deepak Chopra Jon kabat-zinn and Eckhart
Tolle who have all spent their lives
researching and practicing living in the
moment however their years of expertise
should not cause any one person to be
discouraged from practicing living in
the moment and that each person is
capable of being mindful themselves in
their own unique
way and even if it is only for a few
minutes a day for a high school student
it can remain difficult to be a to be
remain Stressless for the four years
before heading off to college pressures
are making a varsity team getting
straight A’s and gaining high marks can
all create stress in a high school
students life now nothing is better than
scoring that game-winning goal of
getting the a on that final but these
achievements may come at a price not
worrying about these future feet may
cause us to stress about them taking us
out of the present moment for prolonged
amount prolonged amount of time for
example this winter my family and I had
a large reunion and I had the choice of
either attending it or studying for my
HCT of course everything has to do with
the hair dyes tests and I chose to
attend the reunion figuring that
socializing with my family would
alleviate my stresses and also create a
sanctuary from studying however the
exact opposite occurred I was completely
stressed out about the a CT the entire
time with questions about reading
passages and mathematics that I didn’t
understand and probably will never
understand running through my head and
after my family left I wondered why why
the a CT a simple test why was so
powerful why was it so powerful and
taking me out of the moment and not
allowing me to enjoy my time with my
family and I realized I wasn’t offered
this escape because I didn’t allow my
mind to distance itself from the test
I wasn’t being mindful another way to
say this is that despite my physical
body being with my family my mind was
focused on the a CT a test that I was
taking weeks later now the next day I
was still concerned about how the a CT
was so powerful and taking me out in the
moment and so I did the one thing that a
kid my generation does I consulted with
the all-knowing power of Google and
after a few moments I stumbled onto the
research of John kabat-zinn who was one
of the thinkers that I mentioned at the
beginning of this talk and later that
day I turned on an interview between him
and Oprah Winfrey discussing present
moment awareness also known as
mindfulness focusing on living in the
moment kabat-zinn wanted to relate to
his viewers that the best way to be
mindful was to be fully aware of their
actions all the time and he gave a very
simple set of steps to achieve this when
you’re stirring the soup stir the soup
when you’re cutting the carrots cut the
carrots and for parents when you’re
picking off your childhood school pick
up your childhood school and don’t be on
the cell phone
kabat-zinn teaches mindfulness based
upon this specific concept and
eight-week seminars but us high school
students and likely most adults do not
have time to attend these however most
importantly kabat-zinn x’ anecdote gives
us an easy roadmap to achieve being
mindful in that if we are focused on the
actions that we commenced we can truly
become one with the moment and not
stress about our futures in addition for
us high school students if you’re
focused on throwing a frisbee only throw
that frisbee and for most of us when
you’re doing your homework focus on only
doing your homework now that leads me to
another point how many of you do your
homework in the presence of your
cellphone we can be easily distracted by
social media alerts and text messages
I’m supposed to be a mindfulness kid I
do perhaps put your phone in another
room perhaps put it on the other side of
the room that you’re studying in perhaps
just silence it with the flick of a
switch I see technology is one of the
largest obstacles to achieve living in
the moment and I personally relate to
this now when I was younger I used to
get so distracted by my cellular device
that you see I had to give my phone to
my parents in order for me to work
effectively in a timely manner and
currently I plugged my phone into a
charging pod on the other side of the
room that I study in and I do this to
not only decrease distraction but
according to a study in 2014 by the
McComb School of Business at the
University of Texas Austin it was shown
that at times of studying there was a
direct correlation between cell phone
use and reduced cognitive capabilities
now regardless of my knowledge of the
study I still am sometimes taken out of
the moment by my device thanks the
buzzing of mostly pointless alerts there
was one time when I was doing an
assignment and my phone buzzed with an
annoying high-pitched ringing that we
all know and so I got up out of my chair
ran across the room probably almost
tripping in the process pulled the phone
out of my charger and looked down and as
I looked back up I realized I literally
got distracted just to see that the New
York Yankees on Giancarlo Stanton struck
out for the fifth time in one game
really regardless of my love for all
type of sports this distraction was not
only one that was unnecessary but one
that caused a complete separation of the
present moment and that it not only
caused my focus to be disrupted it
caused my efficiency while studying to
be tarnished
a study by four psychologists at Kent
State University found in college
students who use their cell phones more
often
they had increased use of stress and
dissatisfaction in their lives as
compared to students who use their cell
phones less it is no question that
technology specifically specifically
cellular devices and laptops play an
integral part in our lives due to the
ability of them to share news alerts and
communicate with others in places all
around the globe however it is important
to note that these cellular devices do
not work in conjunction with living in
the moment and that one cannot be
focused and be aware of the world around
them while focusing on a screen in that
very same study it was mentioned that
cell phone use correlated negatively
with the GPA students of the stuff of
the students measured at Kent State in
simpler terms a cell phone use went up
GPA went down this exact correlation
shows that if we allow ourselves to be
distracted by our devices constantly it
will not only negatively impact our
ability to live in the moment but it
will impact our learning or education
and eventually our future relating to
academics now before I move on despite
the benefits of living in the moment I
want to mention that it does not cause
the stresses of your future to disappear
the future though I want to say belongs
in the future and will all get there
whether it’s in a week a day a month a
year or an hour so why do i suman’s why
do we have the tendency to stressed
about the future when all we have
guaranteed is right now the present
moment all admit this is hard because
while writing this very talk I was in
the middle of an AP English paper and I
got so stressed about it
that I literally had to drop everything
I couldn’t write my mind was flowing
with too much information and too much
stress that I literally had to take my
hands off the keyboard for 30 minutes
and it was only after using moments of
mindfulness that I was able to refocus
and coincidentally as I refocused the
stress of that paper it disappeared what
this experience showed me is that
despite us humans having the brain
capacity to think about the present and
the future and nearly the same time it
is critical that we live in the moment
to decrease our stress that is how we
become mindful and yes this is a
difficult concept to master that’s why
mindfulness is called the practice it’s
obvious that living in the moment has
brought me some benefits such as
allowing me to manage my stress and
slightly calming me
due to the pressures of junior year and
so I want to take you all through
something that I’ve practiced a bunch
this year and it’s something called the
mindfulness practice which I’ve adopted
off the lessons of John kabat-zinn and
various other thinkers and you only have
to do two things for it be present and
listen don’t worry I know how to do this
despite not being an expert at living in
the moment begin by closing your eyes if
you would like to bring attention into
your body and take a deep breath as you
inhale feel the oxygen going into your
body as you exhale feel yourself
relaxing more deeply in your seat feel
your feet touching the floor feel your
legs feel your back for your stomach as
you inhale for your lungs filling up
with oxygen and as you exhale for your
diaphragm lowering for your arms notice
your shoulders pay attention to your
hands the tight or tense do the best
that you can to loosen them notice your
neck and your throat loosen your face
your facial muscles and your jaw now I
want you all to take another deep breath
and as you inhale I want you to notice
any stress that you have had any
outstanding stress of tension that you
feel in your body at the moment and as
you exhale I want you to release it and
when you feel as though you have done
this open your eyes that’s it and it’s
that simple if you were solely focused
on practice if you were solely focused
on the sensations in your body and
nothing else you have successfully
practiced mindfulness in the various
times that I’ve done this I’ve done it
in very stressful situations and when
I’ve done it the stress has completely
dissipated before Kilimanjaro I didn’t
understand the concepts of living in the
moment of present moment awareness in
addition to what the moment actually was
however was that falling rock that I
mentioned in the beginning on
Kilimanjaro that was the catalyst the
beginning of my journey to truly
appreciate the importance of living in
the moment not
only that it allows we humans to calm
down and become less stressed but also
that it allows us to be aware of our
surroundings and truly know appreciate
and recognize the world around us I want
to leave you all with a quote from a
high school student while a couple
decades back perhaps you know him had a
movie made about him his name’s Ferris
Bueller life who’s pretty fast
you don’t stop and look around once in a
while you can miss it thank you very much
my family and I travel to Tanzania to
summit Mount Kilimanjaro the largest
freestanding mountain in the world and
the largest mountain in Africa each day
on the climb I was surrounded by
beautiful scenery whether it was in the
towering cliffs and mawenzi at the
bottom of the alpine tundra and the best
part was no Wi-Fi which meant no phones
no texts no alerts and most of all no
distractions and as my family climbed
higher and higher my appreciation for
those very surroundings and the lack of
distraction that they created grew it
was the rocks and the dunes and the
mount that drew me closer into nature
and made me feel calmer than I ever had
before in addition those very lack of
distractions allowed me to know the
sights and the sounds going on around me
and this I credit with saving my life
let me explain on summer day my family
and I rose before sunrise at 17,000 feet
and after two hours we took a break and
while we were resting we heard screams a
couple hundred feet above and as I
looked up a rock came barreling toward
me it was only later that I learned that
a climber had accidentally slipped and
caused a rock to become dislodged and as
that rock was falling toward me in the
nick of time with all my might I doubt
of the way to my right missing the rock
and merrily as it pummeled down the
mountain and as I rose up with dusty
dusty clothes and shaking with fear I
realized that I was lucky I was lucky
because I was knowing of the present
moment and aware of my surroundings
which allowed me to adapt and I was
given the opportunity to escape as that
rock came barreling toward me now ladies
and gentlemen that story was my first
introduction to living in the moment
which I see is a focused attention on
the present or than now and other names
for this concept can include mindfulness
and present moment awareness and before
I move on I just want to mention that I
personally am NOT an expert on living in
the moment nor my very proficient at it
I’m a high school junior need i say more
about my stress levels however it is
something that I care about dearly and
something that I try to achieve every
day and that allows me to escape the
stresses that occur in my life it also
allows me to appreciate it to the
fullest yes there are scholars such as
Deepak Chopra Jon kabat-zinn and Eckhart
Tolle who have all spent their lives
researching and practicing living in the
moment however their years of expertise
should not cause any one person to be
discouraged from practicing living in
the moment and that each person is
capable of being mindful themselves in
their own unique
way and even if it is only for a few
minutes a day for a high school student
it can remain difficult to be a to be
remain Stressless for the four years
before heading off to college pressures
are making a varsity team getting
straight A’s and gaining high marks can
all create stress in a high school
students life now nothing is better than
scoring that game-winning goal of
getting the a on that final but these
achievements may come at a price not
worrying about these future feet may
cause us to stress about them taking us
out of the present moment for prolonged
amount prolonged amount of time for
example this winter my family and I had
a large reunion and I had the choice of
either attending it or studying for my
HCT of course everything has to do with
the hair dyes tests and I chose to
attend the reunion figuring that
socializing with my family would
alleviate my stresses and also create a
sanctuary from studying however the
exact opposite occurred I was completely
stressed out about the a CT the entire
time with questions about reading
passages and mathematics that I didn’t
understand and probably will never
understand running through my head and
after my family left I wondered why why
the a CT a simple test why was so
powerful why was it so powerful and
taking me out of the moment and not
allowing me to enjoy my time with my
family and I realized I wasn’t offered
this escape because I didn’t allow my
mind to distance itself from the test
I wasn’t being mindful another way to
say this is that despite my physical
body being with my family my mind was
focused on the a CT a test that I was
taking weeks later now the next day I
was still concerned about how the a CT
was so powerful and taking me out in the
moment and so I did the one thing that a
kid my generation does I consulted with
the all-knowing power of Google and
after a few moments I stumbled onto the
research of John kabat-zinn who was one
of the thinkers that I mentioned at the
beginning of this talk and later that
day I turned on an interview between him
and Oprah Winfrey discussing present
moment awareness also known as
mindfulness focusing on living in the
moment kabat-zinn wanted to relate to
his viewers that the best way to be
mindful was to be fully aware of their
actions all the time and he gave a very
simple set of steps to achieve this when
you’re stirring the soup stir the soup
when you’re cutting the carrots cut the
carrots and for parents when you’re
picking off your childhood school pick
up your childhood school and don’t be on
the cell phone
kabat-zinn teaches mindfulness based
upon this specific concept and
eight-week seminars but us high school
students and likely most adults do not
have time to attend these however most
importantly kabat-zinn x’ anecdote gives
us an easy roadmap to achieve being
mindful in that if we are focused on the
actions that we commenced we can truly
become one with the moment and not
stress about our futures in addition for
us high school students if you’re
focused on throwing a frisbee only throw
that frisbee and for most of us when
you’re doing your homework focus on only
doing your homework now that leads me to
another point how many of you do your
homework in the presence of your
cellphone we can be easily distracted by
social media alerts and text messages
I’m supposed to be a mindfulness kid I
do perhaps put your phone in another
room perhaps put it on the other side of
the room that you’re studying in perhaps
just silence it with the flick of a
switch I see technology is one of the
largest obstacles to achieve living in
the moment and I personally relate to
this now when I was younger I used to
get so distracted by my cellular device
that you see I had to give my phone to
my parents in order for me to work
effectively in a timely manner and
currently I plugged my phone into a
charging pod on the other side of the
room that I study in and I do this to
not only decrease distraction but
according to a study in 2014 by the
McComb School of Business at the
University of Texas Austin it was shown
that at times of studying there was a
direct correlation between cell phone
use and reduced cognitive capabilities
now regardless of my knowledge of the
study I still am sometimes taken out of
the moment by my device thanks the
buzzing of mostly pointless alerts there
was one time when I was doing an
assignment and my phone buzzed with an
annoying high-pitched ringing that we
all know and so I got up out of my chair
ran across the room probably almost
tripping in the process pulled the phone
out of my charger and looked down and as
I looked back up I realized I literally
got distracted just to see that the New
York Yankees on Giancarlo Stanton struck
out for the fifth time in one game
really regardless of my love for all
type of sports this distraction was not
only one that was unnecessary but one
that caused a complete separation of the
present moment and that it not only
caused my focus to be disrupted it
caused my efficiency while studying to
be tarnished
a study by four psychologists at Kent
State University found in college
students who use their cell phones more
often
they had increased use of stress and
dissatisfaction in their lives as
compared to students who use their cell
phones less it is no question that
technology specifically specifically
cellular devices and laptops play an
integral part in our lives due to the
ability of them to share news alerts and
communicate with others in places all
around the globe however it is important
to note that these cellular devices do
not work in conjunction with living in
the moment and that one cannot be
focused and be aware of the world around
them while focusing on a screen in that
very same study it was mentioned that
cell phone use correlated negatively
with the GPA students of the stuff of
the students measured at Kent State in
simpler terms a cell phone use went up
GPA went down this exact correlation
shows that if we allow ourselves to be
distracted by our devices constantly it
will not only negatively impact our
ability to live in the moment but it
will impact our learning or education
and eventually our future relating to
academics now before I move on despite
the benefits of living in the moment I
want to mention that it does not cause
the stresses of your future to disappear
the future though I want to say belongs
in the future and will all get there
whether it’s in a week a day a month a
year or an hour so why do i suman’s why
do we have the tendency to stressed
about the future when all we have
guaranteed is right now the present
moment all admit this is hard because
while writing this very talk I was in
the middle of an AP English paper and I
got so stressed about it
that I literally had to drop everything
I couldn’t write my mind was flowing
with too much information and too much
stress that I literally had to take my
hands off the keyboard for 30 minutes
and it was only after using moments of
mindfulness that I was able to refocus
and coincidentally as I refocused the
stress of that paper it disappeared what
this experience showed me is that
despite us humans having the brain
capacity to think about the present and
the future and nearly the same time it
is critical that we live in the moment
to decrease our stress that is how we
become mindful and yes this is a
difficult concept to master that’s why
mindfulness is called the practice it’s
obvious that living in the moment has
brought me some benefits such as
allowing me to manage my stress and
slightly calming me
due to the pressures of junior year and
so I want to take you all through
something that I’ve practiced a bunch
this year and it’s something called the
mindfulness practice which I’ve adopted
off the lessons of John kabat-zinn and
various other thinkers and you only have
to do two things for it be present and
listen don’t worry I know how to do this
despite not being an expert at living in
the moment begin by closing your eyes if
you would like to bring attention into
your body and take a deep breath as you
inhale feel the oxygen going into your
body as you exhale feel yourself
relaxing more deeply in your seat feel
your feet touching the floor feel your
legs feel your back for your stomach as
you inhale for your lungs filling up
with oxygen and as you exhale for your
diaphragm lowering for your arms notice
your shoulders pay attention to your
hands the tight or tense do the best
that you can to loosen them notice your
neck and your throat loosen your face
your facial muscles and your jaw now I
want you all to take another deep breath
and as you inhale I want you to notice
any stress that you have had any
outstanding stress of tension that you
feel in your body at the moment and as
you exhale I want you to release it and
when you feel as though you have done
this open your eyes that’s it and it’s
that simple if you were solely focused
on practice if you were solely focused
on the sensations in your body and
nothing else you have successfully
practiced mindfulness in the various
times that I’ve done this I’ve done it
in very stressful situations and when
I’ve done it the stress has completely
dissipated before Kilimanjaro I didn’t
understand the concepts of living in the
moment of present moment awareness in
addition to what the moment actually was
however was that falling rock that I
mentioned in the beginning on
Kilimanjaro that was the catalyst the
beginning of my journey to truly
appreciate the importance of living in
the moment not
only that it allows we humans to calm
down and become less stressed but also
that it allows us to be aware of our
surroundings and truly know appreciate
and recognize the world around us I want
to leave you all with a quote from a
high school student while a couple
decades back perhaps you know him had a
movie made about him his name’s Ferris
Bueller life who’s pretty fast
you don’t stop and look around once in a
while you can miss it thank you very much
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