Our minds are often scattered throughout the day, making it a challenge to stay truly present. Trapped between past traumas and future anxieties, our minds often become drained, stalling our productivity and focus. While the body occupies physical space, the consciousness is often elsewhere when not present, leaving the biological machine to run on a hollow, automatic loop. To inhabit your life is not a spiritual platitude; it is a technical necessity. Before the mind can be refined, the wreckage of the body must be addressed, and the resident must return to the house.
Seyir (the Experiment) is written by a Turkish Breath Therapist Piraye (Piraye Erdoğan), that chronicles the spiritual and psychological awakening of Mina, a woman who appears successful to the outside world but feels internally hollow and disconnected. The narrative centers on the linguistic and philosophical distinction between the act of being a passive spectator of one’s own life governed by societal “masks” and the tyranny of “shoulds”. The word”Seyir” is the active, conscious voyage toward one’s true essence. Through Mina’s encounter with a mentor figure and her subsequent journey of self-reflection.
Breath is the reset button of the body
Breath is a major power supply of the body. The breath is a support tool designed to stabilize the body’s internal circuits so the mind motor does not short-circuit during high intensity cognitive work. Breath supports to stabilize the body’s internal circuits so the mind motor does not short-circuit during high-intensity cognitive work.
“Really starting to breathe is like pressing the restart button on a machine. All circuits begin to function correctly again. Connections are established.”
Breathe serves as a ground for the execution of mental change. It is thetool that mind remains the source and without a functional power supply, the most sophisticated mental health software cannot run.
The Complaint Trap
Complaint is more than a bad habit, it is a direct rejection of reality. It creates bitter and unpleasant feelings which is generated by the mind. Complaining causes a great humiliation that it relies on the lie that your own unpleasant feelings is caused by something else. Your brain cannot distinguish between reality and thought, it process the information in the same manner. You convince yourself that you are a victim and start perceiving outside life based on that information.
Complaining is a judgement and when you complain you validate a non-existent reality. You act as a victim to avoid experiencing the present moment. As you continue complaining you are slowly convinced that you avoid the simple execution of the present moment. The “trauma” or “anxiety” becomes a shield that protects you from the effort required to actually do the task.
Mind as the motor
The mind creates thoughts automatically all day long without a break and 95% of this is conscious. You have tendency to hear the noise of the engine which is a random thought that could evoke anxiety. You are the inhabitant of the thoughts themselves. The author explains this with a metaphor, you are the passenger, your body is the vehicle and your mind is the motor.
The author being present in the moment as “being at home” and when the mind is wandering into the past and the future it is described as “nobody is home”. This absenteeism leaves a body, a life that there is no one to witness.
The 72-Hour Window
Did you know that you can biologically beat addiction in 72-hour? It is not a permanently state of being and completely up to you. To quit smoking one must first choose to mentally identify themselves as a “non-smooker” as a way to supproess the peak of physical craving. The struggle is not against the substance itself yet one needs to stay away from the familiar narrative of “needing”. Click to learn more about it.
Smoking desire and body’s craving is a storm, watch it from the center. Do not fight it or resist it, let it come and go. Just mentally surrender and let it pass through you. If you manage that storm for the first 72 hours, it is going to be over. As you remain in the eye of the craving, you allow the biological crisis to exhaust the energy without being swept by the narrative of withdrawal.
How you narrate your mind defines the story
Events are neutral data points however we interpret it with the lenses in our mind. Our emotional experience is merely the output of the story and we choose to run through our “mind motor”. The emotional experience defines the narration, is it acceptance or resistance.
For example imagine that it is a rainy winter morning. You need to go outside.
The Narrative of Acceptance: “The rain provides a tranquil, romantic atmosphere.” Result: Serenity.
The Narrative of Resistance: “The rain is a nuisance; everything will be ruined.” Result: Frustration.
The rain does not possess the quality of “serenity” or “frustration.” Those emotions are internal responses to the specific narrative being executed. We do not experience the world; we experience the mechanics of our own interpretation.
Conclusion: Returning to the Resident
True existence is not found in the pursuit of external states, but in the structural integration of the Traveler (body) and the Vehicle (the body). Living fully requires the courage to observe the Mind Motor’s (consciousness) automaticity without being swept away by its momentum. Therefore being in the present is the core of this journey.
To reclaim your life from the “hollow, automatic loop” of mental absenteeism and start living in the present, you must recognize the tools at your disposal:
Breath as the Power Supply: Use your breathing as a technical necessity to stabilize internal circuits and ground mental change. Breathing exercises also serves an important role in living in the present.
Narrative Ownership: Shift from resistance to acceptance, recognizing that emotions are merely the output of the stories you choose to run through your mind. As you learn to live in the present you will also gain the habit of taking a mental distance from emotions.
For the next 24 hours, monitor your internal house. If your mind is busy traveling through past archives or future simulations, ask yourself who is actually living your life right now? To truly live is to be the conscious resident of your design, rather than the passive passenger of an unmanned engine.
