Without the right thing, the mind will wander out

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: Pranaam Acharya Ji, while reading through ‘The Fountainhead’ I found that Howard Roark (the protagonist in Ayn Rand’s novel ‘The Fountainhead’) does not pay much attention to his past actions, and is rather attentive to what’s going on in the present with him. It is clearly evident in his conversations with other characters.

My mind always tries to always introspect the actions that have been done in the past and tries to analyze and draw some conclusions from them. Why does the mind do it? Is it because it was not attentive to the incident when it first occurred, and hence it feels incomplete in its response and hence wants to revisit it?

Most of the time I find that my mind wants to dwell in concepts and ideology it framed and does not want to be attentive to what is happening in real life.

Acharya Ji, please help me understand the introspective character of the mind and how one can bring attentiveness to the present.

Acharya Prashant (AP):

Attentiveness can only be to that which is present.

The past is a filler, do not blame the past.

If you have nothing right now with you, then as a…