What Does It Mean To Be Present?
Have you heard people, even me, talking about “presence” or “being present” and wondered what it means? How it applies to you and why you should even care?
In today’s mini-musing I break this down and discuss what it means to me and how it can apply to you in a way that makes sense in your day to day life.
Audio Transcription:
Hello, and welcome to my musings.
Today I want to talk with you about being present and what that really means in our day to day lives.
For me, what that means is tuning in to the here and now. This very moment. In meditations, I quite often say that stress comes from thinking about the past or anticipating the future because we can’t effect change in either of those places. They’ve either already happened or haven’t yet. The only place that we can actually be and effect any change, if we so desire, is in this very moment. This is where our power lies.
So what does this mean? For me, it means that I literally look around me, I see what I see, I smell the smells, I feel the surface beneath me, I hear any sounds around me. I take a breath and feel into my body and when I do this, I automatically relax. This doesn’t have to be any big production. I don’t need to get in the lotus position and start chanting (unless I feel like it!)
It simply means, I’m not worried about what has happened or what could happen. I am here with what is in my life in this moment.
For many years, I taught about the law of attraction and manifestation and have had a lot of success with this and then I started learning more and more about the power of presence and I felt kind of panicked.
The law of attraction processes and tools that I’d been teaching all focused on doing and being present is about being and not necessarily taking action. I felt like it was a total paradox. How could I go from creating vision boards and lists of all the aspects of what I wanted in my life and taking action to not taking action. How would I “get” what I wanted if I didn’t think about it, write about, talk about, visualize it?
But I was committed to trying out this way of being, and what I discovered was amazing.
What I found was that when I am present and “just being”, I get ideas that bubble up, really good ideas. And from there I can take action if I feel called to do so.
I reflected upon the fact that there is a different energy with the two different approaches. Quite often when we decide we want to create something in our lives or have more of something, we’re coming from a place of lack. A place of scarcity, of sadness or frustration that what we want does not exist in our lives right now.
But when we are coming from the present moment, it is a different energy. It’s an energy of trust. In the present moment, all is well. In this very moment, we have all that we need. And in this moment, we remember that we are divine beings having a physical experience and we can tap into the trust that we can have what we desire, or something even better than our physical selves can imagine.
So, I would pose that there are two different energies at play. One of desperation vs inspiration.
Can you feel it? Can you feel the difference between to the energy of Arghhhh! I need a new car, I don’t make enough money, my relationship is in a shambles, I can’t stand my job or whatever it is for you.
Compared to feeling like all is well. That you are enough, just as you are, in this very moment. There is nothing wrong. You don’t need to fix, improve or change anything. You are not bad. You are not wrong. You just ARE.
That feels better doesn’t it?
And I can hear you. You’re probably saying, yeah but, all those other things are true! I do need a new car, a new job, a new or different relationship, but being in the present moment doesn’t mean you don’t desire those things. And it doesn’t mean you don’t take action. It means you take inspired action from a whole different viewpoint.
I would ask you to play with this for the next week or two. Put away the desperation for a bit, practice coming back to your breath, to the knowing that all is well, and you are not alone. Coming back into your body and just being whenever you start to feel panicked. And notice what comes up for you. I think you’ll be amazed at what you find.
You may find that a friend tells you about a job opening that is the perfect fit for you, your relationship may evolve, or you may meet someone new, or it could be small shifts in your perception, of how you see the world and what you’re open to.
Practice shifting the energy from desperation to inspiration and let me know how it’s going for you. I’d love to hear about your experiences.
And until next time, remember, that true peace is always just one breath away.
Receive a sample of Joline’s
group meditation
Sign up with your email to receive your free grounding meditation and exclusive content
We respect your privacy.
