{"id":323,"date":"2026-01-25T20:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/?p=323"},"modified":"2026-02-08T23:28:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T21:28:22","slug":"from-obsessive-doing-to-active-presence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/?p=323&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"From Obsessive Doing to Active Presence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Yesterday&#8217;s day struck me. It was beautiful. Not for what we might commonly think, but for the evolution of the journey that continues and always offers me new insights. Insights I like to share with you and hope might also be useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yesterday I appreciated the day for multiple nuances. First of all, I finally lived at its best what I call&nbsp;<strong>active presence<\/strong>: living the present moment fully, those moments when we&#8217;re not doing anything particular. Paradoxically, a sort of boredom managed with awareness. Not constraint, but competitive advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The old pattern: the obsession with &#8220;I must&#8221;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Before, society complicit and undeniably so, I lived moments like yesterday with the obsession of &#8220;I must play, I must read, I must go golfing otherwise I won&#8217;t recover and then it&#8217;ll be worse&#8221;. If you remember, I might have already mentioned this concept. It doesn&#8217;t work that way and makes things worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yesterday, for the first time, I truly perceived the concept of active presence. Actually it wasn&#8217;t the first time ever, but certainly the first time my metacognition showed it to me in its depth and value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What really happened<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>I played a little. Read a little. But in getting bored I relaxed. My mind recharged from the week. My mind had insights, work related ones too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I&#8217;ll add something. That work one, I would have acted on immediately in the past. Yesterday, no. I perceived it, processed it and set it on my mental table. Tomorrow Monday, certainly with priority, it will be acted upon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notice something? Having internalized the concept of boredom, having processed the discourse of active presence, led me to live a day like yesterday at its best. Offering me gold in the moments when I played and read, and perspectives for the days to come, not only work related, not only family related.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Forgive the expression, but it was bloody brilliant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I increasingly feel reading, gaming and gradually golf entering into flow. And the more I feel them entering, the more they lead me to recharge and the more they bring me into the propositional circuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The cognitive bandwidth expanding<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The foundation of all this is our cognitive bandwidth. Becoming aware of processes, for example through metacognition and meta awareness, leads us to push noise further away: anger, rumination, various enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m not saying I didn&#8217;t have moments yesterday when that internal negative voice, what I call &#8220;Bastard 2.0&#8221;, tried to hit me. But it was managed. And I feel this fluidity in my mind growing. I increasingly feel the tools in hand and the actions in my possession. My agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is life Happy? Are there no problems? Absolutely and categorically no. But I can manage them and I can reach a state of wellbeing. These steps are there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And agency, let&#8217;s listen: research on active aging suggests that developing the mind and possessing a sense of internal control has the capacity to significantly impact not only perceived wellbeing, but longevity itself. An element we find confirmed even in people whose overall lifestyle wouldn&#8217;t be considered optimal according to classic parameters. The mind matters, big time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The evening: an unexpected surprise<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Yesterday didn&#8217;t end there. In the evening Greta, with friends, two families of Marco&#8217;s schoolmates, organized a surprise dinner party for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was cool. It surprised me. Never had one in 44 years of life. My reaction, paradoxically, was also strange because I&#8217;m not used to it. But I was Happy and I&#8217;m Happy about yesterday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Could I have been more relaxed? That&#8217;s part of the journey and gradually I&#8217;ll get there. But I lived it well and with satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another step. Another stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">An invitation for readers<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;d like to leave a message now regarding what I write. Something not connected to this single post, but rather to all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read them. Observe the generic ones as well as those, especially lately, personal ones. But then abstract. Observe the keywords. Search for them, deepen them. And start thinking about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every piece has been key. Every piece has helped me and led me to new pieces and new paths. It&#8217;s not finished and I don&#8217;t even know if it will end. But the result I see, the reactions and more, I like. I&#8217;m cleaning my mind and thoughts from the past, from the junk food they had. And moving forward I truly feel more control, even in the moments, especially work related, complex ones I face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It won&#8217;t be easy. Maybe I&#8217;ll even receive derision. But who cares. The result repays everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Abstract, deepen and don&#8217;t hesitate to write me or ask me. If through conversations I can paradoxically become part of a rhizome, you know well I&#8217;d be proud of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The writer describes a day lived in \u201cactive presence\u201d, fully experiencing the moment without frantic doing. Shifting away from the pressure to constantly act, he finds relaxation, insights, and renewed cognitive energy. <\/p>\n<p>This awareness expands mental bandwidth, reduces intrusive thoughts, and enhances agency. Even small engagements like reading or playing become richer. <\/p>\n<p>True well-being, he suggests, comes from mindful presence, not pressured productivity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1513,1521,1515,368,1519,701],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-thoughts","tag-active-presence","tag-agency-en","tag-conscious-boredom","tag-metacognition","tag-pieces","tag-rhizome"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":364,"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions\/364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucainfante.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}