We're told we need to "live in the moment" or "be here now", and it's clearly a much better approach to happiness than imagining that happiness lies somewhere in the future (which never actually seems to arrive). But how, exactly, are we supposed to go about it? I'll talk about my adventures among Buddhists, New Age gurus and others, and discuss my own attempts to live in the now. I'll focus especially on the topics of attention and distraction.There's arguably nothing more important than attention: what you pay attention to, after all, ends up becoming your life. But many of us feel that our attention spans are getting ever shorter, and that our smartphones and iPads may be to blame. Can we seize back our power of attention? Must we spurn technology in order to do so, or can it help us in the task?

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"It's only by full body listening in this moment that the true genius arises, the true Masterpiece unfolds."
- Jamie Catto

Jamie Catto will be hosting one of his infamous creativity workshops, sparking personal breakthroughs within Secret Garden Party’s Secret Forum.

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Poet and writer Tom Chivers introduces ADRIFT - a project exploring the hidden landscapes of the city (commissioned by Cape Farewell). Tom has been following the lost rivers of London in a series of 'urban pilgrimages', and mapping what he calls the 'psychogeology' of the city; finding connections between myth, landscape, walking and the 'deep time' of geology.

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The Now of Clown. Full of wonder and bewilderment, clowns and poets love being in the present. Take part in this highly lighthearted and hands-on clown and poetry workshop to practise funny and poetic skills with Philip Cowell from The You & Me Workshop.

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“Good improvisers, who accept and work with whatever happens around them, can appear to others to be supernatural.”
- John-Paul Flintoff

One of the main reasons we don't achieve as much as we could in life is the belief that we aren't ready. But some people don't seem to be held back that way. They act as if they already have what they need in front of them – and find it in materials that others overlook, situations that others regard as unpromising, and innate personal qualities that others take for granted. This is the skill of improvisation: to accept the world as it is, not with resignation, but playfulness and ingenuity.

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Mindapples helps each of us reflect on how our actions affect our minds, so that we can take more conscious action to take care of our wellbeing and mental health. We spend so much of our time not noticing how our lifestyles and context affects how we feel. We aim to help people understand themselves and others better, and make more use of our day-to-day opportunities to look after our minds.

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Ian Giles is a LUX Associate Artist 2012/13 and graduated from MFA Fine Art, Slade School of Fine Art, 2012. His Clay Meditation will feature at NOW Festival this year. Here, meditation is understood as a focused period of calm and reflection. As the clay slowly dries patterns form on the participant’s faces, the drying process acts as the meter for the meditation, leading to reflections on mortality and change.

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Guerilla Science offer the unexpected to challenge negative misconceptions about science. Guerilla Science will be offering Anatomical Life Drawing within NOW Festival - an art lesson with a twist. For a unique blend of art and science, they will illustrate their model's anatomy for you, painting her circulatory system, heart, lungs, spine and digestive system directly onto her naked skin. Appreciate the human form from the inside out like never before.

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An invitation to discover the front line of horticulture in a genteel riot of colour. Richard will be sowing the seeds of revolution and giving some away too as he tells the tales of guerrillas around the world who are gardening beyond their boundaries, making scraps of land more beautiful, more tasty and, should you want to stop by to chat or join in, a lot more fun too. Richard founded GuerrillaGardening.org nine years ago and has done much to popularise this loose global movement through his writing, talks and short films.

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Claudia Hammond, the award-winning broadcaster, writer, psychology lecturer and presenter of ‘All in the Mind’ & ‘Mind Changers ‘on BBC Radio 4 will be talking about our perception of time, where being in the moment is crucial. Why does time play tricks on us and warp in unexpected ways? Why is it that sometimes time feels as though it's speeding up and at other times it's slowing down? How is it that we're able to time-travel mentally at will into the past or into the future? And how can we stay in the present.

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As an actor the phrase 'to be in the moment' is a common one, but what does it really mean? And how does one achieve this on a daily basis? Joan Iyiola’s workshop at NOW Festival will explore the routes and possibilities to achieve clarity in thought as a performer and how this can be translated to the world outside of a rehearsal room. Exploring language with the voice and the body this workshop is open to anyone who wishes to discover a new aspect of spirituality.

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Simple but powerful mindfulness exercises that anyone can do are scientifically proven to reduce stress, improve relationships and job satisfaction. Stress in today's working life has reached epidemic proportions but mindfulness can give you back your life. These sessions will be lead by Mark Leonard, co-founder of The Mindfulness Exchange, a spin-off of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre (OMC), established to provide mindfulness training to the workplace based on the best selling self-help book, Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Professor Mark Williams (OMC Founding Director) and Dr Danny Penman.

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Mindfulness training involves learning to direct our attention to our experience as it unfolds, moment by moment, with open-minded curiosity and acceptance. .b is a course written especially for young people by the Mindfulness in Schools Project, and it’s been taught to thousands of children across the world. Come along and join in with our short, playful .b exercises, and find out where your mind is right now! Suitable for all minds aged 4 and up.

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Simon Mole is the poet from the pub, that rapper from the beach, the friendly guy with the big eyes who told that story. His infectious enthusiasm for seeing and re-seeing the world around him is an open invitation for you to do the same. Some shit he says is mad funny, everybody gets it, plus he speaks from the heart, and his love for the craft of writing is there for all to see. Get involved.

Simon Mole will lead a relaxed workshop about writing as a way to love the world - compose an instant ode to hangovers, a haiku to hold up the beauty of breakfast, or a rap about finding peace failing to pitch a tent in the rain.

Simon will also treat us to a performance that is mixture of poetry and chat exploring the idea of the poem as perpetually present, and the impact that writing about the world has on our experience of it.

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Psychologies magazine is delighted to be hosting one of our favourite experts and authors John-Paul Flintoff. In our June issue, John-Paul wrote us a brilliant piece on why learning to improvise isn't just for performers, but a useful skill for every day life. Psychologies magazine is a great champion of experimenting, thinking differently and... improvisation.

From relationships, parenting and health and beauty to work, travel and money, Psychologies champions, challenges and coaches us to think differently so we can solve our own problems and create a life that nourishes us. Every month, it gives the reader tools to tweak or change the habits or beliefs that no longer serve us and techniques to improve our life skills so we can achieve our goals.

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James and Timm from Responsible Fishing will be demonstrating the increadible art of Stone Balancing, creating seemily impossible, finely balanced sculpture using nothing but stones, gravity and patience. Stone balancing takes a simple starting point, three points of contact between the two stones, to create intricate constructions that incorporate counter balancing and weight distribution to form these unbelievable temporary sculptures.

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Barefoot's Big Om.

What's really wild about the Wilderness is the invisible force of nature informing all of us. We are going to summon that power toning a sound together; the original sound of creation the Om, a big fat Om, a human echo of the original sonic reverberation, a healing for us and everyone.

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Anna Selby is a Programme Manager at Writers’ Centre Norwich, and previously worked at the Southbank Centre where she organised Poetry Parnassus. She is co-editor of The World Record, an anthology of contemporary poetry from all 204 Olympic countries. Anna has also worked for The Reading Agency at Free Word, the UK’s first Literature House, and now organises Worlds International Literature Festival and the Escalator mentoring scheme. Anna is a poet, published by Bloodaxe. She will be facilitating Wild Swimming & Poetry Workshops, and a poetry reading at the nature stage.

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The digital revolution was just the cocktail sausage before dinner. In the next 30 years human society will undergo a shift more fundamental than the industrial revolution. Rather than being swept away, how do you grab hold as new technologies bring more power (and responsibility) to us all? Find out with inspirational Futurist, acclaimed author and advisor to organisations across the globe, Mark Stevenson.

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The Trans-Siberian March Band is a London-based, 13-piece Balkan Brass Band. Formed in 2007, the group’s flamboyant, high-energy performances have earned them an established reputation on the Balkan, burlesque and festival scene both in the UK and beyond. A borderless bag of musical styles (“Oompah meets ska with a hint of transvestite punk”) includes the band’s own take on Klezmer, Turkish, Russian and Latin tunes. Explosive and unique, TSMB’s shows present a lively mix of originals and traditional dance tunes made to get the audience on their feet. A fearsome blend of clarinets, brass, percussion and vocals the Trans-Siberian March Band also look as loud as they sound, with ever-stranger costumes guaranteeing an always spectacular and memorable performance.

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What is reality? How should we live? What sort of society should there be? These philosophical questions never go away. From Socrates to the present day philosophers have debated and written about them, and many of their ideas have shaped the way we think and live now. Nigel Warburton, interviewer of the popular Philosophy Bites podcast (www.philosophybites.com) will be discussing Philosophy and why it matters and playing short excerpts from the podcast series.

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Leading her first ever mindfulness workshop, Ruby Wax – comedian, writer, mental health campaigner – shows us just how our minds can send us mad as our internal critics play on a permanent loop tape. ‘Don’t do that…why didn’t you…you should have…but you didn’t.’ Ruby knows those voices well. She has been on a tough, but enlightening journey through depression which has taken her from the Priory to now having an MA from Oxford in Mindfulness-based Cognitive therapy.

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What matters most in life? Is the good life really about money, possessions, beauty and fame? What really makes us happy? Join us for a thought-provoking, inspiring and fun exploration of the science of happiness and its implications for how we live our lives and how we treat each other. Brought to you by Action for Happiness. Join the movement. Be the change.

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This will be a 'taster' session of Zen brushwork. This art form has been described as not being about ‘how to write beautifully’ but rather ‘how to be awakened through writing’. The emphasis of the workshop will be ‘mushin’, being totally engaged with the activity of writing with the whole body/mind in the ‘here and now’. There will be an introduction to Yo-Ki-Ho (Ki raising exercise) Zazen (Zen meditation) and Hitsuzendo (Zen Calligraphy).

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'Gestalt' in German means figure or form, and 'gestalten' means to shape or create something. So yoga gestalten stands for working with our bodies through yoga.

In these yoga sessions we will work in a playful way to explore how the release of tension, accessing deeper strength and creating space can develop a sense of freedom in the body and mind. In this process, we might gain a glimpse of what it feels like to be just a bit more in the present moment . It will be about the journey getting into the posture rather than the end posture and exploring a fun flow of movement, making the sessions suitable for any age, shape, size, or degree of flexibility.

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