We live in a world that bombards us daily with messages. “Live life to the fullest”, “Save for the future”, “Get your _____( fill in your favorite body part/organ function ) checked out.” In educational circles I hear “get your work done”, “grades are due by…”, “let’s talk about the plan for next year…”.

All of these messages come at us and rattle down inside of us. Then the “uh oh’s” show up or the “I better…” takes hold or “It’s too much” rears its ugly head inside of us. Trying to pay attention to all of this can just add to the stress and before you know it we are hooked or in what we in the ACT Matrix world call spinning in a “stuck cycle”. When this happens the mind wants words. It wants to know what to do and how to do it. It is working like crazy to get us out of the discomfort we feel and then all of our energy is dedicated to solving the problem in our heads.

The answers do not lie in our heads and if we can slow things down for a moment, get some noticing going, and let our experience kick in we literally can “come to our senses”. Our five senses. They can get short shrift when all of this figuring and strategizing is going on. Our minds may complicate things but our experiencing is really very simple. We do not need to analyze it. We just need to notice it.

I have a saying I like to share with people from time to time. It is not something I cooked up but rather it comes from my experience of using the matrix and showing it to people over the years. Here it is:

The matrix does not lie . It always tells the truth.

Noticing is a personal and honest activity that momentarily allows us to see things as they are. People appreciate that.

When we draw the two crossed lines and invite people into conversations ( or ask ourselves the questions ) we can quickly get to the heart of the matter. At the end of the day it is who and what’s important to you that matters for most of us. We can also “notice” our moves and what happens next. Time spent in our heads cannot take the place of action. Action leads to learning and clarifies the mind at the same time. Time spent sitting on our hands may also work but eventually we move on .

It comes down to what we do and the more we can notice our moves, both toward and away, the closer we get to what matters. In my experience, younger folks get this much quicker than us more seasoned individuals. They have less accumulated time spent in their heads than we do. When we introduce the matrix to learners young and old we are giving them the gift of coming to their senses. And we give ourselves a shot of psychological flexibility as well.