Now that spring has officially sprung and the clocks have gone forward, is it a good time to think about what the future has in store – or to reflect on the past?
“Temporal focus” – the attention we devote to thinking about the past, the present and the future – has become an important subject for researchers and clinical psychologists alike. Peter Felsman at the University of Michigan looked at the relationship between temporal focus and general outlook, and found individuals who focused mainly on the present had higher levels of life satisfaction. In clinical settings, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy – that is, learning to focus fully and non-judgmentally on the present moment – has been...